Tripping the Rift
by NightsDawne
Summary: Complete, but reviews eagerly gobbled up by the author still! Torchwood is visited by visitors from the Marvel comics omniverse in a Captain Britain-related adventure. Torchwood/Who/Marvel crossover.
1. Chapter 1

:Torchwood is hardly the only group to employ Rift travel, and sometimes the Omniverse gets things a little mixed up in transit. How will Torchwood deal with something a little outside the Whoniverse washing up in Cardiff? Expanded Torchwood members including John Hart and Martha Jones. Characters are the property of RTD and BBC/Marvel:

* * *

**My Torchwood fics**  
Deus Ex Machina (not yet published)  
Oberon's Wild Night  
Tripping the Rift  
Kyhl's Story  
Archives of the Time Agency

* * *

Tripping the Rift

Chapter One

* * *

"Where is the spike, Tosh?"

"There's no single location, Jack. I'm counting at least three different focal points. One at the Barrage, one at Harry Ramsden's, and one.. right above the Hub."

"Gwen, John, you head to the Barrage with the SUV. Owen, you, Tosh, and Martha check out whatever's up there. Ianto, let's go get some fish and chips."

The teams scrambled. Another night's work at Torchwood had begun.

* * *

Gwen slammed on the brakes as John jumped out of the SUV. "You mind if I stop?"

John ran to the edge of the Barrage, looking over what should have been a rail, but was now just twisted metal surrounding where a huge bite of concrete had been taken out of the structure. "Come have a look at this, lovey."

"G-wwwwennnnn. That's what I answer to, not lo-- what the hell happened here?!"

"I'd say something rather large and heavy crashed right through." John dropped down to one knee, peering into the dark water far below them.

"Now I see why Jack sent you along with me. I'd never have picked that up on my own." Gwen tapped her headset. "Tosh? We're here, but whatever it is must have crashed into the bay."

"Hold on a minute, lovey. I see lights down there."

Gwen crouched next to John, using his shoulder to brace herself as she leaned over the broken edge. "Where? Oh dear god, I see. Looks like a car went over."

"If so, it's got a headlight out. And it's moving."

Gwen inched forward, gripping onto John's jacket. "There could be someone hurt down there."

"Oh, goodie, time to be heroic?" asked the ex-Time Agent drily.

"That's never worked well for you before, John." Gwen frowned as her support vanished with John diving into the water below. "John! Oh, bloody hell!" she cried as she lost her balance and plummeted into the freezing cold water.

The air wooshed from her lungs as the water closed over her head. Frantically she flailed for the surface, squirming out of her handbag. Once her head broke the surface she gasped for air, then looked down for any sign of John. "I'm g-going t-to kill him if he s-survives." She caught sight of the light from below and John silhouetted against it, swimming toward it like a beacon. Suddenly the shadowy form around it moved and other lights sprang to life, churning the water into a glowing cauldron that blocked out her view of her partner. "John?!" she called out, suddenly worried for him. Something burst from the water, carrying her with it. She had time only to take in a metallic grasp around her waist and the cold rush of air before her stomach lurched into her throat, her rapid rise now turned into an equally rapid plummet. She was jolted by a sudden stop, accompanied by a solid thud of metal against concrete, and rolled onto the pavement of the Barrage. Pushing up to her knees, she saw John beside her, soaking wet and drawing his katana, his eyes fixed on something behind her.

Gwen rolled onto her backside hurriedly, acutely aware that her gun was now sinking in the bay inside her handbag. Her eyes widened as she saw a humanoid but entirely metallic figure, gleaming in crimson and gold, its face an emotionless mask with glowing eyes. A bright beam emanated from the chest of the creature. "No.. not cybermen again. Forget fighting it, John, get in the SUV!"

John grabbed her elbow and pulled her up with him, shoving her for the safety of the vehicle. "I'll take your word for it. Run!" He flipped a grenade over his shoulder and dove into the passenger compartment. The SUV was rocked by the blast, scooting several feet away from the edge of the Barrage.

Gwen sucked in her breath and lifted her head to see if they had destroyed the creature. It lay at the base of a support column, under a humanoid-shaped imprint in the metal. She gulped as it sat up, then stood, turning to face the vehicle. "John, it's still alive."

"What?" John scowled at the creature. "How might it feel about getting run over?"

Gwen answered by putting the SUV in gear, then giving it full speed at the metal man. Metal crunched metal, the body flipping over the rail, plunging out of sight. Gwen sighed with relief, then laughed, looking over to John. "I was planning on killing you just a few minutes ago."

"You're over it now?" John returned her grin. "I must be growing on you."

The SUV was suddenly lurched by a shock, rolling backwards. Gwen bit down a scream as she saw the glow of the creature's chest light in front of them. The metal man now hovered a foot above the pavement, its feet and hands glowing as well. One lit palm was pointed at them as Gwen got up to ramming speed again. The palm flashed and another blast hit the SUV, sending it flipping over onto the roof.

"Can we stop pissing it off now?" mumbled John.

Gwen whimpered as she saw heavy red feet drop down next to the driver's window. The door was ripped off with a sickening roar of bent steel and the creature knelt slowly, somewhat ungainly, to stare at her with its lifeless eyes.

"How about you stop doing that, lady, okay? You're scratching up my finish."

* * *

Owen crouched on the roof of the Wales Millenium Centre, listening as Myfanwy screeched in the air above. Torchwood's pet pterodactyl was an excellent guard dog, but she'd been trained to avoid attacking humans, so he was pretty sure whatever she was fighting was alien in origin. He peered up into the clouds, trying to see what was happening.

"Have you seen it yet, Owen?"

Owen touched his earpiece. "Not yet, Tosh, but Myfanwy's having a great bit of fun with it." He stood quickly as he heard a long screech from the pterodactyl, echoed by a howling whistle from plummeting wings. Seconds later the fight broke through the clouds, leather wings flailing against flashes of white. The screech ended suddenly along with the battle as it crashed onto the roof and started rolling toward Owen. The intrepid doctor stood, aiming his pistol at the fracas, keeping his finger on the trigger as it skidded to a tangled stop a metre in front of him. Myfanwy separated herself from her opponent, staggering for her hatchway, one wing dragging.

Owen stepped forward to see what she had dragged down. One bloodied white wing lay stretched over it, feathers skewed and snapped. The other wing lay along the back of the creature in a more resting position, nestled to the back of a pair of white boots. A shock of golden hair was visible under the edge of the bloodied wing. Owen cautiously stepped around the creature, nudging the wing aside with his foot, eliciting a groan of pain. He blinked in shock at seeing the face of a man, looking quite human under the edges of a blue cowl that attached to a blue and white body suit.

"H.. Help me," whispered the figure, opening his eyes to look at Owen. "Don't.. shoot."

Owen slowly holstered his weapon. "I'm a doctor. Don't move, mate. What the hell are you?" He knelt to check the winged man for other injuries. "Tosh, it's something sentient. Myfanwy gave it a good mauling. I'll need help getting it down to surgery. Martha, get prepped."

"You got it, Owen," came the reply from Owen's fellow medic. "Anything remotely human?"

"I'm on my way up," chimed in Tosh's voice. "What is it?"

"Dunno. Looks like an angel."

* * *

Ianto did his best to rein in the flood of adrenaline that always accompanied a field mission. He was doing much better now than when he had first started venturing out of Torchwood with the team. It had been months since he suffered an anxiety attack and he was certain he would never hesitate to kill a blowfish again, but the first few minutes of a mission, when he didn't know what they might be up against, were a battle against an urge to run screaming. He looked over to Jack, standing on the other side of the entrance, and felt confidence well up inside him, quelling his fears. Jack gave him a wink and a grin, almost seeming to enjoy the thought of facing unknown dangers. Jack raised a brow and Ianto answered it with a nod. Jack signaled a three-count with his fingers, the pair of them bursting into the restaurant in unison.

The interior hardly seemed like a crime scene. The jukebox was bleating out Otis Redding to an empty dining room, the only indication that things might not be normal at the busy eatery. A lone figure sat at the bar, back turned to the intruders uncaringly. A hand slipped to the side to collect a bottle of Heineken and deliver it to the mouth of the diner. Ianto and Jack exchanged confused glances before approaching the man at the bar.

"Where is everyone?" Jack called out while still several feet away.

The man straightened slightly. Even sitting it was clear he wasn't particularly tall, probably a half foot shorter than Ianto, but his denim jacket was tightly stretched to contain his muscular build. Shaggy brown hair brushed the collar of the jacket, matching an equally shaggy scruff of long sideburns as he turned to look at Jack. "How the hell should I know?" he asked in a gruff accent that wasn't far off from Jack's American.

"Hey, you from the States?" Jack held his pistol lowered but at the ready as he moved to the bar, a couple of stools down from the man.

The man finished off his beer. "Sort of. Canadian. Why? What're you, a cop?" He glanced down at the gun, not seeming disturbed by it. "Thought nobody had guns here. This _is_ England, right?"

"Wales. We're special cops. We deal with special guests."

"Zat so?" The man set the bottle down and got to his feet, confirming his stature as less than even Owen's, but hardly seeming less threatening for not having a height advantage. "What do you do with them?"

"Depends on whether they're dangerous or not," answered Jack with a smile. "Now how exactly did you get here and where is everyone else?"

The man smirked. "I fell out of the sky and they didn't like my taste in music." Ianto sucked in his breath as the man curled his hands into fists, long steel claws breaking from between his knuckles, extending over a foot, three on each hand. "Or maybe it was the way I eat my fries." He speared a chip with a claw and brought it up to his teeth.

Jack raised the pistol. "Looks like you're in the wrong neighborhood. Guess we have to give you an escort home through the Rift." Ianto followed suit from the side.

"Not until I find my friends," replied the man without flinching. "Why don't you put that away before you get yourself in trouble?"

"We'll take care of your friends, too."

The man growled, lunging for Jack. "Put it away!"

Jack's eyes widened and he fired instinctively, sending three shots into the chest of the man, knocking him back a bit. The man looked down, then let out a roar and swiped at Jack, slashing his claws through his chest as if it were tissue paper.

"Jack!" Ianto cried, horrified. He knew that Jack had proven impossible for death to claim permanently thousands of times in the past, but that didn't mean he was ready to accept it. His finger gripped the trigger of his handgun, shot after shot firing into the body of the man until he crumpled to the floor. Ianto dropped his pistol and ran to cradle Jack's limp form, wiping the blood from his neck and face with a sob. "Jack, come back to me." He rocked Jack's head against his chest, avoiding looking into the soulless eyes of his boss and lover.

"Ungh..." The groan came not from Jack, but from the man Ianto had just filled with bullets. Ianto whipped his head around in time to see the man sit up, then get to his feet, using a claw to pick out a bullet from between his ribs. "You prick. Where are my friends?"

Ianto grabbed the revolver that Jack had dropped, raising it to aim at the man he had already killed once. "Stop or I'll shoot!"

"You're going to get yourself killed, kid. Sorry about your friend, but he didn't give me much of a choice. I'm not a murde--" He stopped, eyebrow raising as Jack coughed.

"Did you get him, Ianto?" Jack sat up, rubbing his chest, then squinted at the man. "What are you waiting for? Shoot."

"Huh. And they say I'm hard to kill." The man chuckled, crossing his arms. "Go ahead, kid, shoot."

Ianto swallowed, his hand starting to shake. "I already shot him, Jack. Several times. He came back to life faster than you."

Jack raised a brow, then put his hand over the revolver, lowering Ianto's arm. "Just where in Canada did you say you were from?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

* * *

Gwen stared at the metal face, devoid of features beyond those glowing eye slits, and struggled to untangle her legs from the wreckage of the overturned SUV. "Who or what.. Kill me now, I won't become one of you."

The man leaned into the cab and yanked the steering column up with a single jerk, then slid her out, gently helping her to a standing position. "Don't recall offering. You sure have a weird reaction to someone rescuing you from drowning," he muttered, his mechanical pitch sounding every inch like that of a cyberman even if his words had a purely human annoyance.

"We didn't need your help, you wanker." John managed to extricate himself from the passenger seat and crawl out. "We were rescuing you."

"Then thanks for the help. Why'd you try to kill me once we were out of the water?"

"Because you're a cyberman. Aren't you?" Gwen watched the man warily, feeling completely helpless without so much as a nail file to fend off an attack.

The man stood still for a few moments, then a dry chuckle broke out. The mask slid open to reveal a very human face, hazel eyes twinkling in amusement above a neatly trimmed goatee and mustache. "Other than a minor modification, I'm all natural, honey." He reached with his left hand to twist a cuff at his right wrist, then pulled off the right gauntlet of his armor, offering out a well-manicured hand. "The name is Tony Stark, CEO of Circuits Maximus."

Gwen took the hand numbly, giving it a shake. "Gwen Williams, Torchwood. This is my partner, John Hart."

"Captain John Hart," mended John quickly, grabbing Stark's hand from Gwen. "So what's the modification?"

"Captain?" Stark raised a brow. "So you might be who we're loo--" He followed John's gaze, which was fixed on his pelvis. "Uh, not there. That works just fine without any help." He pulled his hand back with some effort and turned his attention pointedly back to Gwen. "I came through with a couple of friends. Any idea where they are? Crazy Widget sometimes gets her coordinates scattered, but we generally wind up within a few miles of each other."

Gwen found herself relaxing. Stark's demeanor reminded her of Jack as much as his American accent did, and his skin was clearly too warm to be anything but natural. "We picked up two other Rift spikes. Our associates are investigating them right now. You could come back to Torchwood with us and wait for them. Probably best you aren't hanging about on the street where you might terrify the locals."

"Sounds like a plan," agreed Stark quickly, casting her a grin as charming as that of their team leader. "By the way, I adore that accent. And the gap in the teeth, totally sexy. Maybe we can get drinks later?" He stepped around her and bent to pick up the frame of the SUV with his gauntleted hand, flipping it over with a slight grunt.

"I'd love to, big boy." John stared at Stark, smitten.

"So long as we bring my husband," said Gwen, holding up her wedding ring and saving Stark from having to answer John.

Stark cast a wary look at the lovestruck captain, then set about fixing the steering column. "I'll pay for the damages to your SUV here, but it should at least be drivable for now."

* * *

Martha and Owen stood on opposite sides of the golden-haired angel, gently probing his tall, athletic frame for injuries. The left wing was clearly broken and several feathers, including the crucial pinions, were damaged to a point that left him virtually clipped. His body suit seemed to be made of extremely durable material that had survived even pterodactyl teeth intact, but moans and flinches indicated several fractured ribs and a broken right arm.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Tosh hovered worriedly over the feet of the patient, holding the boots she'd removed from him. "Poor thing, he hardly looks alien except for the wings."

"Tosh, we've had sex with aliens we thought were human. I'm not calling it human while it's sporting bird bits." Owen grasped the right hand and elbow of the angel. "Steady now, this'll hurt."

"Hold on, let me give him--" Martha was cut off by a scream from the patient as Owen yanked the broken bone into place, setting it. "--a shot of morphine."

"Don't know what it'd do to its system." Owen smirked. "All done anyhow. Pass the splint."

"This, Owen, is why they shifted you to science officer and made me the medic." Martha leaned across to splint the arm gently. "You've the bedside manner of a crocodile."

"If it were human, I'd be gentle as a lamb," protested Owen.

"I am human," interjected the patient in a strained voice, opening his blue eyes. "And I'm not an 'it' thank you. I'm a man."

"Hello, there," said Martha with a comforting smile. "I promise I'll keep it gentle from now on. I'm Dr. Martha Jones and this is Dr. Owen Harper. Toshiko Sato is our data specialist. You're in Torchwood."

"Not Torturewood?" The patient struggled to sit up, using his good arm as a brace. "I'm Warren Worthington the Third. Some people call me Angel."

"I can see why." Tosh set the boots down and hurried to nudge Owen out of the way, assisting Warren with a gentle hand under his shoulder. "If you're human, how do you have wings?"

"They started growing when I hit puberty." Warren blew a strand of bangs from his eyes. "I'm a mutant."

"Like an evolution?" Martha carefully supported the broken wing. "Owen, a morphine shot, please?"

"Yeah, like an extra bit of genetic code. You don't have them here?"

Owen slipped a needle into Warren's arm. "We've got all kinds of freaks washing out of the Rift every day, mate. You're nothing special."

Tosh frowned. "I don't know about that. We've never seen an angel. I think he's rather beautiful."

"You, Tosh, need to have sex with something that doesn't have batteries," retorted Owen, tossing the spent needle into the sharps container.

"I'm not actually an angel. I'm a mutated human. I have the X-gene, that's all." He shifted a bit to compensate for his sore ribs. "No special divine dispensation or anything. Is he always this rude?" he added in an aside to Tosh.

Tosh nodded with a slightly pained smile, whispering, "He wasn't loved as a child, I think."

"I know how that is," Warren whispered back, adding a grin with a hint of flirtation to it.

"There it is, the extra genetic material!" Martha had moved away from the bed to the computer screen, studying the readout from the blood sample she'd loaded for analysis before they had started their examination. "Amazing! And it's naturally occurring? Are there many like you?"

"Like me? Not really." Warren seemed amused by Martha's enthusiasm. "Several mutants, but it shows up in each person differently. And there's a lot fewer of us since we've been hunted down."

"Hunted? Why?" Tosh tucked a pillow behind Warren for support.

"People are afraid of people who are different." Warren shrugged as much as his injured wing allowed him to. "Some mutants react to the rejection by becoming hostile, and that doesn't help the cause of those who want to live peacefully with everyone else. Eventually the suspicions turn on anyone who's different and we're attacked."

Martha pulled a stool up to sit next to the exam table, reaching for bandages to help her repair the bones of Warren's wing. "Where do you come from, then? And when? I've done some traveling myself, wonder if we might have crossed paths."

Warren chuckled, wriggling his bare toes in thought. "I'm from New York. Centerport, Long Island. Nice place. Have a few homes in other spots. When? Um, when we left it was May 10th, 2008. Where is this exactly?"

"Cardiff, Wales, just a day after that." Martha furrowed her brow. "Never heard of a mutant problem in America."

"It'd be a different Earth," explained Warren. "Widget sent us through. We're supposed to find your Captain Britain because ours is missing."

"Captain Britain?" Owen snorted. "Sounds like a bad reality game show."

* * *

"I don't know any Captain Britain." Jack took the cup of coffee that Ianto offered him and had a sip. Even without Torchwood's copper castle of caffeine, Ianto could always brew a perfect cup. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood, and this is Ianto Jones, my partner."

Ianto set a cup in front of the Canadian, still somewhat wary even if his claws had been retracted. It was stared at blankly until he poured a shot of whiskey into it.

"Call me Logan if you want." He picked up the cup and drank it down in one long gulp. "That's not bad, kid. Sorry I called you a prick."

"Quite all right, sir." Ianto set about a refill.

"Who is Captain Britain? Sounds like some kind of comic book character." Jack tucked into a cold plate of chips he'd found on the bar.

"Oh, he'd love that," snorted Logan. "Probably fill his apartment with life-size cutouts of himself in heroic poses and do signings at comicons. Least ours would. So nobody you know by the name of Brian Braddock? Could go by Britannic, too. Or it could be a completely different guy on your Earth. Some of them are even chicks."

"I'm sorry, I'm still not sure what you mean," interrupted Ianto. "Our Earth?"

"Yeah, as opposed to our Earth, 616. There's lots of alternates in the omniverse, kid. Ever heard of quantum theory and all that crap? Hope so, because I'm not gonna explain it." Logan leaned back. "Anyway, about the only constant is that every Earth has some version of good old Captain Britain. Captain UK, Captain Albion, Captain England, etcetera. Like a pompous club set up by Merlyn to promote cheerio and tally ho or something."

"Merlyn. Like the magician?" Jack tapped his fingers on the bar. "He's been dead so long he's just a myth here. Sorry."

"He'll find his way through." Logan pushed away from the bar, stretching so that his jacket threatened to burst at the seams. "Widget said specifically that there was a Captain Britain here who wasn't in the Corps yet, so Merlyn's got to get his hands in on it somehow. Right now, though, I've got to find my friends, so while it's been pleasant.."

"They're at Torchwood right now, sir." Ianto held up his blackberry with the text message from Gwen. "One Tony Stark and one Warren Worthington III."

"Then let's give Logan here a lift back." Jack abandoned the cold fries and took Ianto's free hand, leading the way back to the car.

"... Oh, _that_ kind of partners." Logan smirked and followed after them. "I got it now."


	3. Chapter 3

:Okay, I can't help it, I desperately love the movie Iron Man. No need to drop a ton of reviews regarding how the armor differs from the comic book versions of collapsible flex-metal suits, or how by this time Tony should be sporting the Extremis adaptations as well. I've adjusted 616's Tony to be more like the movie version with the specs for Mark III and the arc reactor. I'm sure you purists have already noticed I ganked Robert Downey Jr. for the physical model for Tony anyway. ;):

* * *

Chapter Three

Stark strode through the tangle of computer screens that filled the Hub, his helmet tucked under his arm. "Quite a setup you have here. Biocircuitry, simulated organic processing artificial intelligence, vortex integration. If your computer's single, maybe I can set her up on a date with JARVIS."

Gwen looked around the blue glow and jungle of wiring. "I pretty much just write emails on it and surf YouTube. You should talk to Tosh or Ianto if you want to learn about the computer system."

"Is this your Vortex Manipulator?" Stark walked around the central core. "Haven't mastered miniaturization yet?"

"Please don't touch that," she warned, hurrying to guide him away from it. "Jack doesn't like anyone messing about with it. It can cause all sorts of trouble with the Rift."

"Some of us have our own manipulators." John sidled up next to Stark, lifting the cover from his wrist strap to show off his personal version. "One of the few things where smaller is better." He winked slyly at him.

"Listen, Hart, I realize you can't help yourself, but I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop fogging up my shoulder armor there." Stark stepped back stiffly. "You said Warren was here?"

Gwen chuckled, coming to the rescue of their visitor by taking his arm. "He's in surgery, right this way. John, go change into something dry and find something for Mr. Stark to wear? He's what, about Jack's size?"

Stark flashed his charming smile at Gwen. "What about you? Can't have you catching cold, either."

"I'm off to fix that just as soon as I deliver you to Martha." Gwen held open the door of the surgery, allowing Stark to enter. "This is our medic, Dr. Martha Jones. Martha, this is Tony Stark."

"Nice to meet you, Martha." Stark let his eyes drift over Martha's tall frame appreciatively. "You can both call me Tony, by the way. How's Warren?" He cast a quick nod back to Gwen as she excused herself, then returned his attention to the doctor, a hint of concern in his eyes.

"Just fine. Waking up now, as a matter of fact." Martha guided him to the operating theatre. "His wing was badly damaged, so we put him under in order to piece the bones back together, but he seems to be remarkably resilient."

"That he is." Stark broke into a grin as he walked over to the table where Warren was stretched out, his good arm flopped languidly above his head as if he were floating on a raft in his pool rather than lying on an operating table. "Should I even ask what happened to you?"

"Would you believe another Pteranodon?" Warren smiled weakly.

"No, since we're in the middle of Cardiff. Flying sheep would be more likely." He glanced back at Martha, noting her long legs with a raised brow. "They've sure got some gorgeous women working in this place."

"Tell me about it," murmured the mutant. "I might keep this cast on my arm even after tomorrow. Girls love casts almost as much as they do wings."

"Now see, I don't need either to get a date." Stark flipped Warren's hair into his eyes. "I'm just that good."

"So are you a mutant as well?" Martha turned from her computer.

"Me? No, I'm a genius," explained Stark with not a hint of modesty. "Although I've gotten some good reviews regarding physical prowess that doesn't have much to do with being Iron Man. Not that I'd kiss and tell."

Martha gaped for a moment, her expression a mixture of shock, embarrassment, and amusement. "I see. So you go by Iron Man, then?"

"Sidestepped the whole pick up line. You're good." Stark grinned. "That's right, I'm Iron Man. Not accurate considering the high tech materials the suit's made up from, but it has a ring to it."

"Would it be possible for me to check you out?"

"Now there's a pick up line." Stark winked.

Martha scrunched up her nose, blushing. "I meant, can I check you over to make sure you're okay? According to what Gwen said on the phone, you survived a grenade and a collision with the SUV."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." He brushed at the faint scratches where he'd taken shrapnel, then set the helmet down to start working out of the somewhat cumbersome armor. "Been through a lot worse before. Took a bullet train in the back one time in the Mark II."

"He needed the Jaws of Life to get him out of the suit that time," chimed in Warren.

"Any suit you walk away from..." Stark twisted his arm around to get to the torso clamp.

Martha reached out to help him with the pieces, setting them carefully on the counter. "Lord, these weigh a ton. Do you have super strength?"

Stark shook his head, shrugging out of the last part of the suit. "Once it's put together the suspension system kicks in and it's not much heavier than clothing." He shook out his dark brown hair, clad only in a black garment reminiscent of a surfer's wet suit.

Martha raised her brows. "Impressive engineering. You really must be a genius." She turned to face him, blinking at the glowing disk in the middle of his chest that poked through a cutout in his suit. "What's that for? Interface?"

Stark looked down at his chest. "Power source. Arc reactor. Longass explanations before it'd stop confusing you."

"Oh, had a friend with one of those in his TARDIS." Martha leaned forward to get a better look. "Yours is much cuter, though."

Stark suffered a rare moment of silence, broken by Warren's laughter. "You know how to make a guy feel small, doc. Shut up, Worthington."

* * *

Jack stared at the remains of the Torchwood SUV. "Where's the door?"

Ianto leaned through the broken out passenger window. "In the back seat, it appears. Roof looks damaged, too."

"I swear, if she let John drive again.." Jack raised a fist in the air in frustration.

Logan poked at the twisted hinge on the driver's side. "Looks like Tony's work to me. Relax, he'll probably buy you a whole fleet." He planted his hands on his hips. "So this is what you get around in? No jet? Not even a helicopter? I mean, I guess it's okay for low budget, but you gave me the impression you were boys with toys."

Ianto raised a brow. "Well, it's very nicely equipped, sir."

"Yeah, bet it's got back seat cupholders and everything." Logan turned, clearly unimpressed. "So where's your headquarters?"

Jack exhaled slowly through his teeth, leading the way through the Info Centre entrance to the Hub. "You know, there _are_ certain advantages to keeping a low profile."

"I'm well aware of that." Logan snagged a bus schedule before following them through the secret passage to the staircase. "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy enough with a beat up P.O.S. if it gets me where I want to go. Just figured if you're the protectors of the Rift you'd be more upscale."

"There's really not as much funding as you might think in secret crown-mandated agencies, sir," Ianto offered.

"That's always the case, kid. If it weren't for the convenient number of millionaires that drop into our laps, every mutant team in the Omniverse would be scrounging for bus fare. And what's with the 'sir' bit anyhow? You remind me of that Alfred guy if someone defossilized him with an overdose of youth serum."

"Who or what's an Alfred?" Jack looked up as they reached the Hub's main floor.

Logan waved it off with his hand. "Butler to one of those evil-fighting millionaires. Doesn't do coffee so well. And I really hope he's not screwing his boss." He let out a slow whistle, strolling forward to have a look at the organic and technical chaos that comprised the Hub's alien computer system. "I take it none of this is standard issue."

"It was here when Torchwood moved in over a century ago." Jack lifted his chin. "Torchwood exists to make use of alien technology as well as guard against it."

"So you set up under an open Rift vortex and catch all the junk that drops out, huh?" Logan raised his brows and looked back at Jack. "You sure you don't know Captain Britain? This sort of thing is exactly what he'd be doing."

"I'll run the name you gave us through our system if you'd like... Logan." Ianto cleared his throat, trying to look less like a butler and more like a proper Torchwood agent as he sat down at Tosh's station and pulled up the search software.

Logan watched over Ianto's shoulder. "Just look for any variations on the name Brian Braddock."

"What would you be looking for _that_ name for?" John stood in the doorway, some of Jack's spare clothes slung over his shoulder.

Jack looked up at the rogue time agent. "Why, does it sound familiar to you?"

John pursed his lips innocently. "I might have used it a few times, but the statute of limitations would _have_ to be over by now."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

* * *

"Brian Braddock, a legendary and presumed fictional English highwayman whose name appears on wanted posters as early as 1474 in Lancashire," read Ianto from an online article. "The same name is assumed to have been taken by several robbers as it continues to appear throughout Europe and the Americas as late as the 19th century. Tales of Braddock crimes usually have him robbing wealthy nobles of extremely precious jewels or robbing trains in the American West carrying gold from California to Colorado. There are also accounts which have him seducing wealthy victims before making off with their most portable items. The sexual ambiguity of many of these tales led to the coining of the term 'Braddock books' for underground homosexual literature in the Americas of the 1700s and 1800s."

John smiled in fond memory. "Ah, good times, good times." He blinked innocently as he noted Jack glaring at him. "What? You weren't any choir boy with the timeline yourself."

"... Puts a whole new spin on Old West train robbers I don't even wanna think about." Logan shook his head.

"What don't you want to think about, Logan?" Stark made his way around the core toward them, stopping next to John. "Those for me? Thanks." He relieved John of the shirt and trousers he was carrying, pulling them on over his skin suit.

"We found Captain Britain," smirked Logan.

"Where?"

"There." Logan nodded toward John.

Stark cast a wary gaze at his original rescuer. "No way." He shook his head. "This _cannot_ be the poster boy for British law and order."

"It'd be a new kind of poster for him." Logan waved Stark over to read the entry on the computer screen. "By the way, how's Warren?"

"Being doted on by a beautiful doctor and a hot Asian computer geek. He'll be fine. So he has a personal vortex manipulator so he can traipse around robbing and pillaging the dandies? It's like a bad 80's pop icon." Stark turned to look John over again.

"Excuse me, I don't think we've met." Jack straightened his shoulders so he could match Stark's height and reassert his position. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood Three's team leader, and you are?"

Stark offered his hand out. "Tony Stark, CEO of Circuits Maximus." He looked back to Logan as Jack shook it. "Are you sure we can't make this one Captain Britain? He looks more law and order."

"He's not even English." Logan crossed his arms. "I'm telling you, _that_ is the guy Widget sent us to find."

"Are you English?" Stark tapped Ianto's shoulder hopefully. "No, nevermind. Too John Steed. Nice suit, by the way."

"Look, you all seem to be in on some secret identity I don't know about." John spread his hands in exhasperation. "Who the bloody hell is Captain Britain?!"

* * *

Jack looked up from the conference table as the rest of his staff joined them, followed by the tall blond mutant, his injured wing held out at an awkward angle. "Logan, Tony, this is the rest of Torchwood. Owen is the go to guy on biological research and alien life forms, Martha is our medic, Tosh handles the technical aspects, and Gwen is a field investigation expert. You know her field partner, John, and Ianto, our administrator."

John seemed to have forgotten completely about Tony Stark as he took in Warren's more dramatic appearance. "Where the hell do you hide a man like that?"

Stark grinned, perfectly happy to lose a fanboy to Angel. "Plain sight, usually. This is Warren, he's one of the X-Men, same as Logan. His specialty is recon and extraction, whereas Logan is more of a swiss army knife with a temper. Me, I'm good at everything, but I'm usually the technical support when working with mutants. Warren, say hello to our host, Captain Jack."

"He sounds American." Warren waved with his left hand. "Is it short for Captain Union Jack or something?"

Jack waved back, then pointed to John. "Not me, him. He's the one who's been using the name Brian Braddock."

"Oh... hi." Warren flashed John a friendly smile. "You look shorter than our Captain Britain."

"I'm big enough, handsome," replied John with a wink. "Captain Union Jack. Sounds better than Captain _Britain_."

"Okay, we've got the introductions taken care of, so shall we get on with it? Oh, thanks, Ianto." Stark took a sip from the mug he was handed. "Mmm.. They don't make coffee this good in _America_, how do you manage it here? If you're willing to share your recipe, we can talk about starting up a chain, put Starbucks out of business in six weeks." He took another sip to find his way back to the subject at hand. "Okay, Captain Britain. Every Earth has one tucked away somewhere. Sort of a safety net for the great unknowns that fall out of the Rift. Collectively known as the Corps, they're guardians that are specific to threats that face their own particular Earths. Their job is to keep their reality safe, using powers granted to them by Merlyn and powered by the Rift."

"Hold on," interrupted Owen. "You're tellin' us that our very reality is in the hands of _him_?"

"Well, yeah." Stark shrugged. "Not like I'm making the choices here. Whatever it is that he can do, it's something that is needed for your Earth's survival."

"Thanks for the confidence." John pouted. "Why don't you stand up for me, Jack?"

"Because you're a fuckup?" Jack gestured for Stark to continue.

"Thanks. Okay, where was I? Right, our Captain Britain. Leads a team of mutants called Excalibur, usual practices, fight evil, save the world, have inter office romances, yadda yadda. Last week they faced off against a big badass named Melehan, apparently has it in his head to take over the universe, like that hasn't been tried a zillion times. According to Widget--"

"Who is Widget?" asked Gwen.

"Sort of technical with a really long explanation behind it. She's a floating dimension splitting robot who can track the various Captain Britains and open up Rift portals among other things. Fair enough? Right, so, according to her, Melehan is one of the enemies of Merlyn who is convinced that the old guy faked his own death. Merlyn was the founder and protector of all the Captain Britains, so this guy Melehan has been going around and wiping them all out, replacing them with _his_ versions, who aren't so good for the locals if you get my drift, and he's done something to Merlyn's successor, Roma, so she's not able to help, either. According to Widget, he's taken over four Earths already and their Captain Britains are gone. Whoosh, off the radar. So when our Captain Britain goes up against Melehan and doesn't come back, it's not a good sign. All of a sudden Excalibur is facing off with some guy who looks like Braddock but wants to kill them, unleash unspeakable horrors, terrorize Europe, you get the idea. Same shit, different day for our lot, right?"

"I don't quite get where John comes in," Jack commented. "You want him to fight the fake Braddock? Or Melehan?"

"No, no." Stark shook his head. "He's not actually a Captain Britain yet. He'd get creamed. No offense, Hart. Widget's theory is that we need a way to get in touch with Merlyn, but he's dead. Or pretending to be dead. Who knows for sure? Melehan seems to think he's not out of the picture yet. Since Merlyn is the means to give the powers to Captain Britain and Roma's not available, we're hoping that finding your Earth's Captain Britain _before_ he's Captain Britain will give us an opportunity to make contact with Merlyn so he can help us find our Captain Britain. Any of this sinking in or do I need to break out a flow chart?"

"I'm following it." Ianto leaned on the table next to Jack. "What makes you think that Merlyn will.. enhance, whatever, John in time for you to find your Captain Britain and save your planet?"

"Because Widget said he's the next one up in line for enhancement. Good word for it, I like that one. Remind me of my own administrative assistant, Pepper.. except she looks better in a backless dress and she keeps trying to replace my sugar with Splenda." He held out his mug for a coffee refill. "Anyhow, Widget said that your Earth's Captain Britain would be initiated on May 12, 2008."

"That's tomorrow." John sat up. "You mean by tomorrow I'm gonna be a superhero? Not bad. Just one thing, though. I will _not_ put on a pair of tights, lads, no matter what."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

* * *

"I can't sleep, Jack. It's like Christmas bloody Eve!"

Jack's eyes snapped open as he lay in his bunk. Only one member of Torchwood was ever welcome to invade his private sanctum, the emergency shelter he called home. This voice did not belong to that member. He growled, sitting up in his bunk, and ran his hand through his hair. "Get out, John. Now."

John paced the small floor space between the bunk and the steamer trunk where Jack kept his most private possessions. "You were so ready to write me off, so sure I wasn't needed anymore, and now don't you feel a prat." John paused to peek at Jack as the sheet shifted from his hip. "Still sleeping in the nude? Is that wise? What if there's a fire?"

Jack wrapped the sheet around his waist and stood, reaching for his clothes that lay draped over the end of his bed. "Can't you go bother someone else? How about you go drool on Warren again?"

"Can't. Tosh is hogging him all to herself."

"Then go annoy Tony." Jack turned his back to John to dress.

"He's chatting up Martha." John ogled Jack openly. "You should work on your tan. Or does your eye candy like your arse so lily white?"

Jack whirled, zipping up his trousers. "Then go bug Logan, anyone, just get out of my room!"

"Ew. I mean the guy's got muscles, but all that hair?"

Jack banged his forehead slowly against the ladder that led up to his office. "Please, John. I let you join Torchwood on the one condition that you not follow me around like a stalker and every time I turn around you're there."

John crossed his arms sulkily. "How typical. Still think everything is about you, don't you, even after today. Did you hear what they said up there?" He leaned forward, tapping his finger against Jack's bare chest. "You need me, mate. I'm Captain Union Jack."

"Not yet." Jack pulled on his shirt and made his way up the ladder. "You can't use that name. It'll be too confusing."

"I can if I want to," John retorted, following. "You can change your name."

"No. I've been Captain Jack Harkness for better than a century. Pick another name."

"I'm not using Captain Jack Harkness. I'm using Captain Union Jack. Oh come on, Jack," he pleaded, "it goes so well with John Hart."

Jack resisted the urge to throttle John. "I said no. Captain Britain, Captain Wales, Captain Cardiff, Captain Sexypants, anything else you want to call yourself is fine by me, but you're not going to be Captain Union Jack!"

John grinned. "You think I've got sexy pants?"

"... Ianto!" Jack stormed into the Hub. "Ianto, I need some coffee!" He stopped, only to have John run into him from behind. He sighed and turned to face his tormentor. "Fine, I give up. What is it you want?"

"I want you to acknowledge that I'm important." John looked down, crestfallen. "I can take being replaced by a tea-boy with a stopwatch, but I just want you to admit that I'm not the useless tit you treat me as."

Jack took a deep breath, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I don't think you're useless, okay? If you were, I wouldn't have let you join my team in the first place. You're a royal pain in the ass and a reminder of a past I'm trying to redeem myself from. That doesn't mean I don't realize that you're talented, resourceful, and a valued agent."

John slid his arms around Jack's waist, dropping his cheek on his chest. "Can I get a plaque that says that?"

Jack stiffened, closing his eyes as Ianto cleared his throat behind him. "Go buy a poodle, John." He pushed away from his ex and turned to pull Ianto into a kiss, almost spilling the coffee his faithful admin had brought.

* * *

Tosh broke into another spontaneous grin as she cut up Warren's steak for him. "There. Just like mother used to do."

"Not mine." Warren struggled to open his bottle of beer with one hand. "My parents pretty much left me to the servants once they realized I was what they considered a freak."

"How awful." Tosh took it from him, using the edge of the counter to snap the lid off just like Gwen had taught her. "I don't see how anyone could think of you as anything less than beautiful."

Warren took the bottle back, gazing up at her with his baby blue eyes. "I bet you say that to all the mutants. If you ask me, you're the beautiful one."

Tosh blushed, half turning away from him. "I'm nothing special. Looks wise, at least. I mean, I'm good with computers and systems. There must be a million girls like me on your world."

"You'd be surprised." Warren sighed. "It's kind of hard to have a relationship in this line of work. I see and do things most people wouldn't believe, but it's not like I have anyone I can really talk to about it. There's other X-men, of course, but that gets really complicated really fast. I was dating Brian's sister Betsy, but the stress of the job got between us. You know, it's one thing to know your significant other is in a dangerous job. It's another thing completely to have to see them in danger while you're trying to work as well."

Tosh nodded. "I understand completely. I don't know how Jack and Ianto do it. Owen and I had a very brief thing, but.." She shrugged. "To be honest, after working with him for so long, it wasn't what I thought it would be. It just felt like I was snogging my brother." She wrinkled her nose. "Not that I'd know for a fact what that's like, but there just wasn't any thrill to it, really."

Warren laughed. "His loss. He was probably intimidated by a woman with as much brains as she has beauty. And yes, you are beautiful. I'd give you a snog in a second."

Tosh blinked. "You're teasing me. Either that or you're still on pain medication."

Warren set the beer aside, wrapping his good arm around her waist lightly. "My head's perfectly clear. And if you think I'm teasing, go ahead and test me."

Tosh stared into his eyes for a moment, then leaned down, pressing her lips to his, her heart racing in her chest. Only when her lungs protested did she pull away to inhale, her eyes wide. Warren's eyes were closed, his lips still parted slightly, his hand pressing into the small of her back. Tosh slid carefully into his lap, avoiding brushing against his injured wing.

"So do I pass?" Warren opened his eyes, studying her face.

"Flying colors," whispered Tosh, leaning in to kiss him again.

* * *

"Go on, touch it." Stark fixed his hazel eyes on Martha's, his legs hanging over the side of the exam table.

"No. Really?" Martha's nose crinkled. "It's pulsing. Do you feel that?"

"The pulse? If I think about it."

"No, my fingers." She moved them slowly. "Do you?"

"I don't have skin over it, so not like if you touched me anywhere else. I have pressure sensors."

"It's so amazing. So its like a mini tokamak generator."

"Well, with modifications on the magnetic emissions and a different form of plasma, but the same principle." Stark smiled. "You're smarter than most doctors."

"What, medicine is a field for dummies?" Martha let her fingers trail from the arc reactor and sat on the exam table next to him. "Most people would put it up there in the intellectual career choices."

"That's not what I meant." Stark raised his eyebrow. "Usually medical doctors tend to get focused in on just medicine. I bet only one in ten of them have ever even heard of a tokamak."

"Like I said before, I traveled around with a bloke for a while who had some pretty advanced engineering on his ship." Martha shrugged. "I managed to broaden my horizons."

"I take it you're not talking about cruising to the Bahamas."

Martha shook her head with a laugh. "No, I'm pretty sure he'd have found that deadly dull. Unless, of course, they were being invaded by werewolves or the entire chain was being sucked into an alternate universe or something."

Stark nudged her with his shoulder. "Sounds like you have high standards in boyfriends."

Martha nudged right back, rolling her eyes. "He wasn't my boyfriend. He was cute, and charming, and anything but boring. It just never turned out.. _that way_."

"He couldn't have been that smart, then."

"I've never met anyone half as brilliant as him, actually."

Stark raised a brow. "So I'm out of the competition before we even get started, then? How could he be smarter than me?"

"For one, he was nine hundred years old." Martha broke into a laugh at Stark's expression. "He didn't look it, honest."

"Might have explained his lack of interest, though." Stark turned his upper body to face her. "I, on the other hand, am pretty much right in stud age range."

"And not suffering any lack of self esteem." Martha crossed her arms, leaning back from him a bit.

"Well, other than a slight cardiac problem, you'd have to say I'm a perfectly fit specimen, wouldn't you, doctor?"

Martha's eyes traveled down to Stark's firm six-pack abdomen. "Well, yes."

"And you seem to be in pretty good shape to me."

"Just good shape?"

"Correction. Exquisite shape." Stark tipped his head coyly, a lock of wavy hair falling over his brow.

"Better. So what exactly are you getting at?" Martha leaned slowly forward, her face inches from his.

"How about we broaden each others horizons?" He smiled, letting her lips meet his as she pushed him back against the table.

* * *

"These are the coordinates, Mr. Stark." Ianto looked up from his GPS as the rest of Torchwood, Stark, and the mutants joined him on the windswept bluff, the morning light playing across the grass.

"I hate the outdoors." Owen sneezed, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets and studying Warren from the corner of his eye. "Where's your wings?"

Warren cast Owen a sunny smile, draping his arm around Tosh. "Image generator. Tony designed it for me so I can walk around without everyone knowing I'm a mutant." He reached down to his belt with his casted arm and flicked it off, his wings suddenly springing into view. He spread them fully to either side, bowing them against the wind. "You did a great job fixing me up, Dr. Jones."

"I'm pretty impressed with your healing abilities," replied Martha, smoothing her hair out of her face.

Owen snorted as Warren folded his wings. "Showoff," he muttered. "So why're we out here freezing our bloody arses off?!"

"This is where Widget predicted Merlyn's arrival." Stark took a sip from his travel mug. "Now it's just a matter of when."

"How do we know what he looks like?" John was starting to look slightly nervous. "You've never met him, right?"

"Wouldn't matter if we had, kid." Logan stretched his arms, squinting against the wind. "Nobody's sure what he really looks like. He can put on any face he wants."

"And you're sure he won't hurt John?" Jack crossed his arms, his wide stance framed by his billowing coat. "I don't take kindly to anyone hurting a member of my team."

Stark frowned. "I've never heard of him hurting any of the Captain Britains. Not like John's going to do anything stupid, is he?"

"John, promise me you won't do anything stupid." Gwen faced off her field partner sternly.

"What do you take me for, lovey?" John held up his hands with a sigh. "I'll be on best behavior."

Jack took the travel mug of coffee Ianto offered him, sliding his free arm around his boyfriend's waist. "Keep on your toes, Ianto," he murmured. "There's something... I don't know.. oddly familiar about what I'm feeling right now."

Ianto nodded, then tensed as he heard an unmistakable pulsing whirr behind him, slowing like a dying engine. "... Don't tell me, Jack. Is that..?"

Jack's jaw slacked as he stared at the familiar blue police box that had appeared on the bluff. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Martha clapped her hands together, laughing as the door to the box opened. "I should have known as much!"

John frowned, leaning to see what was going on. "What's the big deal?"

The Doctor stepped out onto the grass, tucking his hands into his pockets and surveying the assemblage. "Hallo again. Sorry, Jack, Martha, not here to see you this time. Looking for a chap named Brian Braddock."


	6. Chapter 6

:For my fellow Marveloids, no, I'm not going to claim that the Doctor as Merlyn is my idea. For those who aren't aware of the comic book adventures of the Doctor or who haven't read Excalibur or any of the CB storylines, Marvel canon is the source for the connection between CB and the Whoniverse, with the Doctor being alluded to as Merlyn himself under some of his incarnations. Of course, the fluidity of the canon, which they themselves acknowledge and exploit, gives me free rein to use the familiar and beloved Tenth in this story. There, geeking completed for this chapter. And an overdue thanks to those kind enough to R&R. You guys inspire me to keep posting. Cheers! Oh, and there might eventually be more coming up on Tenth's companion in another story, but for now it will remain a teaser.:

Chapter Six

* * *

Ianto wrapped his arms around Jack's waist tightly, watching from the corner of his eye as the Time Lord whose last appearance had taken Jack from him stepped out of the blue police box. He said he wasn't here for Jack, but did that mean Jack wouldn't follow him anyway? His lover still had one arm around him, but all his attention was on the man from Gallifrey.

Stark looked over to Martha's grinning face. "You know Merlyn? Is this the guy you were telling me about?"

Martha nodded. "Calls himself the Doctor, actually. Never heard him use Merlyn or I'd have told you, Tony."

John pushed past Logan, straightening his regiment coat and lifting his chin as he walked up to the Doctor and offered a cocky salute. "I'm Brian Braddock. Yes, I accept your challenge and pledge to.. uphold.. whatever.. Is there any sort of salary or maybe flash jewelry that goes with this gig?"

"Oh dear. Yes, you would be him." The Doctor scratched his head. "Roma's going to have fun sorting you out, but that's her job, not mine." He spun on his heel, marching swiftly back into his TARDIS. "Come on, then, best get started!"

John tossed a smirk to Jack as he ran after the enigmatic Doctor. "I'm using the name!"

"No, you're not!" shouted Jack as the door to the police box closed.

"Now what?" Warren looked over to Logan and Stark with a frown as the pulsing whirr started up again and the TARDIS vanished. "When does he help us find Brian?"

"Hart said he'd tell him what happened." Stark finished his coffee, handing his empty mug to Owen, who promptly passed it off on Tosh.

"But they're gone." Warren gestured with his cast to where the TARDIS had been.

"They'll be back," assured Martha. "Believe me, John's not the Doctor's type when it comes to companions."

"I thought you said it wasn't '_that way_' for you two." Stark raised a brow.

"It wasn't," she protested. "Just.. well, can you imagine anyone wanting to drag John around the universe, having to clean up his messes and worry about what trouble he'll get into? The Doctor prefers that his companions be more responsible and mature. He doesn't suffer fools, you know."

Ianto looked at Jack, trying to imagine what it was like for him to have been one of those companions. Jack had shared some bits with him, funny little stories, anecdotes about Martha and the Time Lord, but his silent gaze after he'd stop talking told Ianto that not all of the experiences had been good. Jack always avoided talking about painful memories in front of Ianto, whether to protect him from the horrors waiting in the omniverse or to protect himself from reliving the nightmares. Perhaps one day Jack might trust him enough to open up completely, to let him share his burdens as well as his joy. "Do you want to go again?" he asked softly.

Jack shook his head, his eyes still fixed on the empty space in the grass. "I wouldn't do that to you. Besides, I already got my answers from him."

He loosened his grip on Jack, laying his head on his shoulder. "Then what is it you want from him?"

Jack kissed Ianto's hair. "Been practicing your empath skills?"

"Yup. Changing the subject?"

"You wouldn't bring it up if you weren't worried." Jack sighed. "I just wonder if.. he could do anything about.. my brother."

Ianto swallowed, hugging Jack comfortingly. He felt his lover's muscles tense and looked up to see the TARDIS re-materialize in the spot it had been. The door of the police box swung open and John strolled out, looking exactly the same as he had when he left.

"Say hello to your superhero, mates." He broke into a grin and held up his right middle finger in a gesture familiar to those from the Americas, sporting an ostentatious gold ring set with a sapphire, diamond, and ruby. "Captain Union Jack!"

Logan arched his eyebrows. "Okay, I'm ready for our Captain Britain again."

Stark pushed past John as the Doctor emerged. "Hello, I'm Tony Stark and-- Did he just ignore me?" He frowned as the Doctor continued on his path toward Jack, then turned to Martha, who took his arm and gave it a reassuring pat.

"Don't take it personally. Jack's an old friend of his. Give him a chance to chat."

"I keep forgetting I'm in the UK. Everything here has to happen after a chat." Stark shoved his hands in his pockets.

Jack lifted his chin. "Hello, Doctor. No companion this time?"

"Actually, I dropped him off in the city a little earlier. He has some errands to run."

"He?" Jack chuckled. "How'd that happen?"

"I don't get what you're hinting at," sniffed the Time Lord. "Kyhl's extremely useful. Knows what I want before I ask, never makes a mess, serves the best tea in the universe. It's quite handy."

"... Did you say.. Kyhl?" Jack straightened, his arm dropping from Ianto's waist limply.

"I did." The Doctor took a pair of glasses from his pocket and slid them on. "So this is Ianto? Very pleased to meet you, young man. Jack mumbled your name in his sleep every night I had to put up with him when he followed me that last time."

Ianto numbly shook the hand the Doctor held out. "I.. don't know what to say. Sorry if it bothered you, sir."

"Found it amusing, personally." The Doctor smiled with an odd fondness. "Good to know there's someone with a solid head on his shoulders keeping this incorrigible rogue grounded."

"... I do my best, sir." Ianto looked up at Jack in confusion. Jack simply looked as if he'd been hit in the face with a haddock. "He's not that much of a rogue, really. Is John, er, Brian okay?"

"Fine, never better I imagine." The Doctor looked over his shoulder at the newest Captain Britain, then caught sight of Warren. "Hallo, when'd you pick up him? He's not from around here, is he?"

Ianto cleared his throat as Jack remained silent. "His name is Warren Worthington the Third, sir. I believe they're here to speak to you about Earth-616."

"Oh, right. Come a long way then, I suppose we should chat." The Doctor turned for the TARDIS once more, waving for Torchwood's visitors to join him. "Come along, Ianto. We'll need someone who can keep notes."

Ianto looked to Jack again. "Should I..?"

Jack shook off his stunned expression. "What? Yeah, go. But don't let him keep you past dinner time. And no time traveling, understood? That's an order, Ianto."

Ianto's lips curled into a smile as he ran to catch up to the others, looking back from the door of the TARDIS. "Don't worry, Jack. I won't leave you."

Martha closed the distance between herself and Jack, following his gaze to the door of the police box. "What was that all about? You looked like you'd seen a ghost there for a minute."

"He's traveling with a guy this time."

"So?" Martha pulled her chin back, brows knitting. "Don't tell me you're jealous. He doesn't get romantically involved with his companions. And I don't think he cares much for men anyhow. Never looked at one while I was with him."

"That's not it." Jack shook his head. "I know Kyhl. Knew him in my past in the 51st century. Know him now when he's not Kyhl yet." He looked at Martha. "I'm in love with him. And maybe I don't want to lose him, not even to the Doctor."

"You mean, he's..." Martha looked at the TARDIS, realization dawning on her features. "Oh, Jack. It's okay, it's not going anywhere. He's right inside."

"Bloody hell, isn't _anyone_ gonna ask me about my superpowers?!" John threw his hands up in the air. "You're all such selfish wankers."

Gwen laughed, patting John's shoulder. "Sorry, we were waiting for the drama to build. Come on then, tell us what you can do."

"Glad you asked, lovey." John strutted to one of the three brand new SUVs that Stark had insisted on buying for Torchwood before they'd set out for the meeting with Merlyn. After a flexing pose, he crouched and grabbed the rear right wheel, lifting the entire vehicle off the grass before letting it drop again.

"Yay, John!" Gwen applauded along with Tosh and Martha. "That'll come in handy next time you run us off in a ditch."

"That's not all." John formed a fist with his right hand, aiming his ring at the travel mug Tosh was holding. It floated out of her hands, levitating in the air as he carefully guided it to land at Jack's feet. "What do you think of that?"

"That was brilliant, John," cheered Tosh.

"He's just showing off." Owen looked to Jack for support.

Jack shrugged. "It's not bad."

John planted his hands on his hips. "Not bad?! You're just jealous. Wait 'til you see this, bit, then you'll be wantin' to put my face on t-shirts." He put his right fist up in the air, then jumped, accelerating as he left the ground and continuing straight up.

"He flies?" Owen rolled his eyes. "Now we'll never hear the bloody end of it."

"Score one for Captain Union Jack!" yelled John as he slowed. For a glorious moment he hovered in the air, twenty metres off the ground, beaming down at his teammates. Then, almost like a gymnast losing her balance on the beam, he wobbled, twisted, and plummeted. Gwen clapped her hand to her mouth as he crashed and skidded along the grass, banging his forehead into the rear bumper of the last SUV. John lay motionless, groaning.

Martha and Gwen both ran to help him. Gwen took his hand, giving it a little squeeze. "You were fantastic, John. No need to prove anything anymore."

Martha opened his eyelids, checking his pupils. "Don't move. Do you know where you are?"

"Outside Cardiff," mumbled John, squinting.

"And what day is it?"

"Monday. I'm fine, sweetheart. Just have to work on my landings is all." John sat up, rubbing the lump on his noggin. "But it was cool, yeah?"

Martha laughed, assisting Gwen with getting him on his feet. "Yeah, it was cool."

"Okay, no flying until you've had training." Jack looked back to the police box, distracted.

"That's not fair!" John marched over to stand in front of the team leader. "Just because you can't do it, you say I'm not allowed to?"

"I make the rules, John."

"It's a stupid rule." John crossed his arms over his chest.

Jack crossed his arms, equally determined. "It's for your safety. We need you, don't we? You're the guardian of our reality? I'm not going to risk that just so you can show off."

John opened his mouth, then closed it again, smiling. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Just so you know you need me."


	7. Chapter 7

:Okay, while writing this chapter I kept getting distracted by how I would present Kyhl's story, which I felt was unfair to this one, so I shot off a one-off called Kyhl's Story that might give some proper backstory for that character if anyone's interested. Sorry the chapter rate has slowed for the moment, but I haven't had quite so much spare time the last couple of days.:

Chapter Seven

* * *

Jack kicked the running board of the SUV, waking up Owen who had fallen asleep in the passenger seat. Jack spun and leaned back against the door, glaring at the TARDIS. "What's taking so long?"

Owen propped his elbow on the window frame and yawned. "Don't care. No coffee. Smells of grass. Get in and we can go back to the Hub. Let Ianto call a cab."

"Oh no. I'm not taking my eyes off that thing."

Owen groaned. "Look, Jack, I understand you acting like a jealous skirt, but I don't give a shit if they're in there shagging sheep. Even John's bored. How about you stay and fume, me and the team will go back to the Hub and take some allergy tablets."

Jack frowned, handing over the keys. "Fine. Grab some pizza or something, too. And don't let John fly or blow his cover in any other way."

"Consider him muzzled." Owen smirked triumphantly, snagging the keys and sliding over to the driver's seat. "Oi! Girls! Let's go!"

Jack watched the rest of his team pile into the SUV, then pull away, turning back onto the motorway. He paced the grass alone, looking up at the TARDIS, then back to his watch, then back to the path he was trampling. It had been two hours since the visitors from Earth-616 and Ianto had joined the Doctor in the blue police box. At two hours and ten minutes, his cell phone started to vibrate. He tapped his headset in irritation. "What?"

"Jack?" The voice on the other end was hesitant, little hint of a Welsh lilt left to it, sounding much more American. "It's you, right?"

"Kyhl?" Jack swallowed, turning away from the TARDIS as if he needed to shield his conversation, dropping his voice. "Why are you calling me? Where are you?"

"I just needed to hear your voice. You're right, I shouldn't.. I'm sorry."

"No!" Jack lowered his voice again. "Don't hang up." He waited for a moment, unsure if he was still connected until he heard a soft breath on the other end. "I know you can't tell me anything, but I just need to know you're okay. You _are_ okay, right?"

"I'm fine," came the answer quickly. "Really, you don't have to worry. It's sweet that you do, though."

"I'm a sweet kind of guy." Jack couldn't help a smile. "So why do you want to hear my voice?"

"It's just been a while. Don't push me for more than that." Jack could imagine Kyhl flipping his long dark bangs out of his eyes as he said it, then realized he didn't know for sure what he looked like right now, if this Kyhl was before or after the one he already had met in his timeline. Changing identities, down to accents and appearance, was almost second nature for him. "You still there, Jack?"

"Yeah. Just wondering what color your hair is."

Kyhl laughed and Jack wondered how he could have failed to recognize it before. It was the same in any century. "Blonde."

"No... Why? I like brunette. Long or short?"

"I can dye it back, you know. Um, sort of long in front, short in back."

"Sounds sexy. ... So what color underwear you have on?"

"God, Jack, I risk a time-contaminating phone call and you want to do heavy breathing?"

"It's not like I can ask you any of the questions I really want to."

"I know. I'm sorry, it's really not a fair game, is it." There was a pause. "Black. Silk."

"Really? That's almost as good as none at all."

"Please, you want me to go commando on the TARDIS? Look, Jack, I've got to go. ... I love you."

"I love you, too," Jack whispered, closing his eyes as the line went dead, trying not to imagine the reasons why, if they were still in love, it had been a while since they'd spoken. The sound of the TARDIS door opening startled him and he spun, choking down the sense of guilt over the illicit phone call. It didn't help at all to look past Stark, Logan, and Warren to see the Doctor leaning to whisper to Ianto, or to see Ianto break into a grin in response. Jack took the opportunity to compose himself emotionally as Ianto shook the Doctor's hand, the pair looking less like strangers and more like a student being congratulated by a doting headmaster.

"Everyone else go home?" Stark looked at his watch. "Guess it took us a while. Ianto can fill you in. ... Jack?"

Jack's attention snapped to Stark. "Right, of course. They're back at the Hub. Told them to get pizza in case you're hungry. So you want to follow us back in the third SUV?"

"Fine. If they get anchovies I'm sending it back. Hate anchovies. Hate cashews, too. Don't see the point in having bait or bridge mix on my pizza." Stark motioned a round-up with his index finger to the mutants, heading for their designated vehicle. "We'll be right behind you."

Jack started forward to say goodbye to the Doctor, but the door shut before he was halfway there, the engine starting up. He shook off the sense of rejection, knowing the Doctor's attention to manners was fleeting and often random. He stopped, waiting for Ianto instead, smiling at him. "I take it you two got along."

"He's great." Ianto gave Jack a hug before they made their way to their SUV. "He had to go meet a friend, but he told me to tell you he'll stop by for an actual visit when things are settled."

Jack raised both brows, chuckling. "That's something to look forward to." He got the door for his lover before getting in himself, then started up the engine for the return trip to the Torchwood headquarters. "So did he know where their Captain Britain is?"

"He managed to find the wheres. It's the whens he's not sure of. We came up with a fix for that, though, so provided he's able to track them down eventually, it's already been taken care of." He opened the glove box, sighing when he failed to find his stash of biscuits. "I forgot to eat."

Jack floored the gas. "Great, you remember everything except taking care of yourself. Pizza at the Hub. Don't get hypoglycemic on me."

* * *

Jack watched as the pizzas vanished by halves under a combined attack from Stark, Logan, and Warren. Ianto held back, in danger of being shut out of lunch completely in spite of his low blood sugar. Jack rolled his eyes and fought for a slice American style, grabbing it out of Logan's hand and handing it to his boyfriend. "You want me to order more?"

Logan eyed his purloined sausage and ham being hungrily consumed by the tea-boy. "Yeah. And beer."

Ianto tried a disarming smile, but stepped closer to the door of the break room. "Maybe we should go brief the team, Jack."

"Can we get a chicken and pineapple?" begged Warren, losing the last of the meat feast to Logan, who speared it with three metal claws.

"The delivery number's on the side of the box. Get whatever you want. Knock yourselves out." Jack pushed Ianto out the door. "And I thought _you_ had an appetite."

* * *

Ianto took his seat next to Owen at the conference table. "Merlyn, the Doctor, has agreed to help us."

"What do you mean, us?" Owen leaned back in his chair, tapping a pen on his knee. "We got our Captain Britain, for what good he is."

"Hey," protested John. "I haven't had a chance to do anything yet. No need to assume I'll fail."

"Melehan will show up here sooner or later, then he'll be our problem," explained Ianto. "If he's beaten Captain Britains on worlds where there's loads of superheroes, I'm not sure we'd stand much of a chance."

"Fine, so what's the plan?" Jack held up his hand to stop any further protests. "Look, I'm not saying we aren't good and that we haven't fought off some pretty serious threats before, but this is a guy the Doctor himself is hiding out from."

Ianto folded his hands on the table in front of him. "We need to lure him here, using John and the Cardiff Rift as bait. The Doctor and his friend can hopefully make the other arrangements, and Mr. Stark, Logan, and Warren have agreed to stay here and help us."

Gwen pursed her lips. "We can manage it, then. C'mon, we've beaten Death before. And Abaddon, can't forget him."

"I'm up for another go against a god," quipped Jack.

"And I thought you'd given up on you and me." John winked. "Bring it on. Captain Union Jack is on the case."

Ianto nodded. "Melehan arrives under full moon. The next one is on the 20th. That gives you about a week to master your powers, John. Warren and Logan said they'd be happy to coach you."

"Oh, goodie." John rubbed his hands together. "Back to school, and such yummy teachers!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

* * *

Stark dropped down onto the couch in the Torchwood waiting room, flipping through data on his smart phone. "Okay, so let's coordinate this. According to Merlyn, the same gene that becomes the mutant X-factor on our Earth is present in the humans of your Earth, it's just suppressed."

"That's a good thing, most likely." Jack leaned against the railing, crossing his arms over his chest. "Superheroes tend to mean supervillains, if I remember my comic book politics."

"Well, I won't deny that. Anyhow, the Rift seems to attract those with the X-factor. Martha ran the blood profiles of your staff and identified half of them as having the genetic material in a dormant or vestigial state." Stark raised a brow as Ianto walked in, carrying two cups of coffee. "Perfect. I don't know that I'm going to be able to survive without your java, you know that?"

Ianto smiled, handing them each a mug. "I'm sure Pepper makes good coffee as well, Mr. Stark."

"Yours is the only stuff I've had that beats hers, but don't tell her I said that, okay?"

"My lips are sealed." Ianto exchanged glances with Jack. "Well, it's time for me to go tidy up. Excuse me."

"Thanks, Ianto." Jack sipped his steaming elixir, watching his young lover leave.

"So was he your boyfriend before you hired him?" Stark savored his coffee. "Just curious, because I know I can't sleep with Pepper no matter how hot she is. She knows too many of my dirty little secrets."

"When I hired him, he had a cyber-girlfriend and I had accused him of stalking me." Jack smirked. "I slept with him the first time because I had to keep him from hiding his own dirty little secrets. That and I couldn't risk losing him."

"I can see why. Found out during that meeting with Merlyn he's pretty sharp. Kept all his 'notes' in his head."

"He has a photographic memory, he can calculate figures in his head faster than Tosh even, and he's empathic with a better than average gift with precognition." Jack looked into his cup. "And he can throw a mean right hook if you piss him off."

"Then I wouldn't piss him off if I were you." Stark tapped at the touch screen of his phone. "Okay, that's Ianto's talents. I'll put him under psionic. What about you? Logan said you're necro-regenerative and regenerative, pretty much like him. Any increased strength due to that?"

Jack shook his head. "Not really. Ianto says I've got great stamina, though."

"God, I so do not want to hear more about that." Stark tapped in his notes. "What about psi-abilities?"

"Telepathy resistant, but that's about the extent of it."

"How about training? You look like a fighter, or is that army surplus fashion sense just for show?"

Jack arched his chin. "I served in both World Wars, actually. I really _am_ a Captain. My training includes firearms and hand-to-hand combat. If you force me to, I can use a sword, but I hate the mess."

"I'll make a note of it and put you under regenerator. Okay, what's Harper got besides a Napoleonic complex and a medical degree?"

"Owen can influence weevils like the one we have down in the vaults. And he scored highest of the team in psychometry and retrocognition."

"So he sees ghosts?"

Jack frowned. "No such thing as ghosts. It's just emotional imprints and psychological trauma. But yes, he sees them more completely than anyone else here. It also means he can sense alien technology, or touch an alien object and have some good intuition as to what it is and what it does."

"I'll list him as a necromancer, then." Stark added that to his file. "How about Gwen?"

"She scored as high as Ianto on empathy. She was a police officer before she joined, so she's got great intuition. She's also got a high affinity for alien technology, but it's hard to pin down her exact talents. She's most important to us for the way she reminds us how important normalcy is."

"... How about we call her unknown for now? We know she has the gene."

Jack nodded. "I'm sure she does. As for Tosh and Martha.."

"They don't have it," said Stark quickly, pocketing his phone. "We checked already. That's not a big deal, though. I don't have it either, but you just ask those mutants who saves their asses on a regular basis."

Jack held up his hands. "Don't need to lecture me as to whether Martha Jones can save asses or not. She's only responsible for saving the planet when even the Doctor was out of commission. And Toshiko's understanding of advanced maths and Rift physics is a lot more useful than anything the X-factor gene might give us."

Stark stretched his arms along the back of the couch. "Don't ever forget that. I wouldn't give up brains for all the mutant powers in the omniverse."

* * *

"C'mon, Johnny Boy, you can do better than that." Warren leaned over the railing at the top of the stairwell, watching as John attempted to reach him for the third time. The Vault's central shaft made an excellent practice space, stretching fifteen stories deep with a diameter of fifteen meters, just enough to allow for turning practice as well as straight upward flight. Usually Myfanwy claimed this as her kennel, but the pterodactyl had been locked up in the lowest level of cells to keep her from interfering with John's lessons. Warren was personally quite glad not to have to face her again. He stretched his wings to the sides for balance, wishing his pinions would finish regenerating so he could join his pupil. "Use your legs for steering! That's right.. Watch out!" He winced as John yawed into the wall tiles at the thirteenth level and tumbled back down. "Straighten your legs, get your feet under you!"

Gwen bit her lip, watching through the observation window at the tenth level. "Oi, he's going to crash again! Shit!"

"Poor John. Is he hurt?" Tosh switched the CCTV view to the base level, well-padded in straw that served as Myfanwy's bedding. She waited anxiously for a few seconds until John emerged from the pile, sticks of straw poking out of his hair and jacket.

"He's good!" Gwen grabbed Tosh's hand, squeezing it happily. "Go, John! Woohoo!"

Owen rolled his eyes, turning away from the window to look to Logan. "What is it with girls and flyboys?"

Logan shrugged. "I dunno. The female mind is the last great mystery. I gave up trying to figure them out a long time ago." He looked over to Owen with a smirk. "Still, doesn't hurt to be a pilot if you can't do it by yourself."

"Got my license last month," Owen smirked back. "What you fly, small planes?"

"Pretty much everything, actually. Props, jets, ultralights, helicopters. The X-men keep a pretty extensive fleet of transports, so I get to play with just about anything I want to."

Owen raised an appreciative brow. "So how's it work with the ladies?"

Logan chuckled. "Kid, I _never_ had problems in that area. But yeah, it doesn't hurt. No more than it hurts you to be a doctor, I bet."

"Don't even have to mention that," sniffed Owen. "They usually go mad for my looks, charm, and obvious intelligence."

"Speaking of going mad.." Gwen looked over her shoulder. "Don't even see it as a problem that you can't _keep_ a relationship going, do you?"

Owen curled his lip. "Don't get me started, Gwen. I broke it off with both of you, remember?"

"I don't remember it like that," countered Tosh. "We both decided we were better off friends."

"Yeah, same here." Gwen turned back to watching John. "Not that you're that bad in the sack, but a girl gets tired of that when you don't have a clue about romance."

"I am the master of romance," argued Owen. "I just use it on real girlfriends, not workmate shags!"

Gwen and Tosh spun around together, glaring at Owen. "Why do you have to be so cruel?" asked Tosh angrily.

Logan snorted. "Hey, Mr. Romance, how about we get out of here and go grab a beer? If I'm gonna get into a fight, I'd rather do it in a bar than trying to save you from your ex-lovers."

Owen tipped his head back. "Yeah, a drink sounds good. Getting bored as hell watching the birds swooning over the birds."

Gwen sighed as the door shut behind the men. "I don't get him, I really don't, Tosh. He's _jealous_ is what it is, but I'm not sure of what. It's not directed at John, even though he's a superhero now. Has he said anything to you?"

"Hmm? No. Nothing. We haven't really had much time to talk the past few days, though, Owen and I."

Gwen followed Tosh's gaze through the window, not to John's latest attempt, but to the winged mutant above them. "He is cute, isn't he?" Warren glanced away from John, his eyes meeting Tosh's. A smile broke across his face and he gave her a wink. Gwen gasped, then broke into a laugh. "Alright, mystery solved. If I were you, Tosh, I'd keep Owen away from your sweetheart."

* * *

"So you were married?" Owen reached for his fresh pint, looking at Logan in shock.

"Why's that hard for you to believe?" Logan leaned on the bar, refilling his glass with whiskey.

"Don't seem like the type to settle down. Get domesticated and all that. Kids?"

Logan set the bottle down rather heavily. "A few. Tends to work out better to adopt and know what and who you're dealing with, at least for me. The ones that I run into that I'm not expecting usually show some abandonment issues. I guess I should keep in touch with a woman after I move on, at least for nine months to make sure I'm in the clear."

"Prevention, mate. Why run the risk, I say."

"You talk like being a father's a disaster."

"You don't sound like it's been exactly the highlight of your life."

Logan snorted. "I'm not the best dad, but that's not my kids' fault."

"So what is it you do for a living, Logan? When you're not out superheroin' and all that, I mean."

"I'm a schoolteacher right now."

Owen spewed lager over the bar, then choked with laughter, wiping his face. "A what?!"

Logan raised a brow. "I teach martial arts, foreign languages, and world history at a private academy for mutants. What's so funny about that?"

"Just tryin' to picture a bunch of brats waving their arms and askin' 'Mr. Logan, can I visit the loo?' No, but seriously, you're a beast with a brain, then?"

"Hank would bore you to death with a discussion on sensitivity for that last bit, but yeah. Being a mutant doesn't mean being an idiot. Most mutants who manage to survive do it because they have more than a couple brain cells rubbing together."

"Well, one doesn't get into Torchwood without bein' sharp, either, mate." Owen crossed his arms. "We deal with some pretty hairy situations, just the seven of us, without super powers."

"What are you, giving me your resume?" Logan tossed back the rest of his whiskey. "I hope you're right, though, that you're all as good as you claim. We're gonna need every advantage we can get."


	9. Chapter 9

:Huge thanks to those who R&R. It's hugely appreciated and your feedback is incredibly helpful. The more reviews, the easier it is to shape up my writing, so please help me out with your opinions and critiques!:

Chapter Nine

* * *

"Smoking in an enclosed public area. Drunk in public. Aggravated assault. Aggravated assault on a police officer. Destruction of property. Destruction of police property. Destruction of a public telephone. Disorderly conduct. Disorderly conduct directed at the police. Public nudity. Oh, and urinating on the shoes of a police constable." PC Andy Davidson looked up from the booking sheet wearily. "I was expecting Gwen. She off tonight or something?"

Ianto took a deep breath, hands in his pockets. "She's observing a training exercise with her partner. We do appreciate your calling us to collect them and you can be assured it will be handled internally."

"Just shove your bloody speeches, mate. I know you won't do a bloody thing, same as every other time we've arrested Dr. Harper." Andy turned on his heel to lead the way to the cell. "What is it you do for them, anyway? You're not one of them, not like Gwen. Some sort of lawyer?"

"I'm in admin, that's all."

Andy guffawed. "That's likely. A bloody admin who dresses like he's running for Parliament? Just tell me what you really do."

Ianto's shoulders tensed. "I'm a receptionist, I told you. I make coffee, fetch takeaways, straighten up the files, take phone messages, schedule meetings." He sighed and looked into the cell Andy opened, Logan and Owen both passed out on the floor, snoring like sailors after shore leave. "Collect arrested staff and make generous contributions to the Constabulary Charity Fund."

"You're a glorified butler is what you're telling me? I've got better qualifications than that." Andy nudged Ianto with his elbow. "If there was a position opening up, you'd tell me, right? After all I've done for you lot?"

"There's no openings, sorry." Ianto flashed Andy a sympathetic smile. "Keep up the good work, though." He stepped into the cell and crouched to shake Owen's shoulder. "Owen, c'mon, wake up. I'll drive you two home."

Owen cracked open an eye, nudging Logan with his foot. "Oi, our ride's here, mate."

"Bloody Torchwood," muttered Andy under his breath.

* * *

Ianto held the door to Owen's penthouse open with his foot while he guided him in, one arm around his waist, Owen's arm draped over his shoulders. "I think this is the most drunk I've ever seen you. I'm impressed."

Logan stumbled in after them, attempting to light his cigar with a match and dropping it. "Shit. Out of matches."

Ianto lowered Owen to the sofa, then crossed back to where Logan was leaning against the bar, offering out his lighter. "Are you sure you should be smoking?"

Logan leaned in, getting the tip of his cigar aglow with Ianto's steadying assistance. "That's how all the fighting started earlier tonight, kid."

Ianto dropped the matter, heading for the kitchen. "I should have warned you that there's a ban on smoking in bars in Wales. And most of the other things you two did after that."

"I don't like lectures when I'm sober, kid." Logan shoved Owen's feet aside so he could sit. "Now this is a nice place. Great view."

Owen sniggered into a throw pillow. "Should see the view from the bedroom. Get a girl in there, they always gotta stay to see the sunrise." He fumbled a remote control from under the pillow and hit the power for the entertainment system, the television sliding up from its console. "Oi! Ianto! Sport on tonight?"

"Blackwood and Pontypool on Scrum V."

"Don't even need a programme guide." Owen switched it over.

Logan arched a brow. "You're not sleeping with him, too, are you?"

"What?" Owen scrunched up his face. "No, Ianto just likes playin' nursey, so why should I disappoint him?"

"Makes you wonder what would happen to Torchwood if he got killed."

"We got on fine 'fore he came along." Owen sniffed, shifting into a sitting position. "Can live on Starbucks if we have to."

Ianto reappeared in the living room, armed with a tray which he set down on the coffee table. "You didn't have much to work with, so I made omelets." He handed them each a plate and a mug. "Should I wait to drive you back to the Hub, Logan, or will you be fine here?"

Logan sniffed the plate, then grabbed a fork. "Mind if I take your couch, Owen?"

"All yours, mate. Cheers, Ianto."

"I'll just let myself out then." Ianto made for the door, answering his cell phone as it chimed. "Yes, Jack. On my way now. They're fine."

* * *

Gwen tossed a Red Bull to her partner before cracking open her own. "You sure you're not hurt? You crashed at least twenty times."

"Was that all you noticed?" John opened up his drink, kicking his boots up on the lunch table. "You think you could do better with flying, you're welcome to give it a try, lovey. Oh, wait, that's right, you can't fly, can you."

Gwen grinned and sat down across from him. "I'll give you that, I'm stuck on the ground like any normal human being and you're super powered. What's it feel like?"

"I've always been above average, haven't I? Honest, it doesn't feel much different at all. Feels more like everything around me changed and I stayed the same. Objects got lighter, gravity took a bit of a holiday, but other than that, I feel like me."

Gwen propped her cheek on her hand. "That's almost a disappointment. People on drugs who think they're superheroes always talk about how they feel powerful. It was the one part of it that sounded tempting, if they didn't act such idiots for being high."

"You've never gotten high?" John broke into a snicker. "Such a virginal child you are."

"I've been drunk before. And I've had Retcon, but then again, I can't really remember what that felt like, can I. But no, I think drugs are stupid. I've seen what people do on them."

"No wonder your mind is so closed off and tiny." John dropped his feet to the floor to lean forward. "There's plenty of drugs you can take that won't get you addicted, you know, but can open you up to the universe. Let you see a beauty your eyes can't catch."

Gwen swallowed. "I wouldn't do it. I prefer to be in control of my actions, thanks."

"When this is all over, lovey, you and me are going to work on that. Not like Jack'd mind. Hell, he taught me the wildest formulas I've ever taken."

"Jack? On drugs?" Gwen snorted. "Not likely. Not the Jack I know now."

"Oh, he tripped a lot after we'd pull a job. We'd drop some Havokon and stay awake for days, feeling the pulse of the stars and having amazing sex. Afterwards, no hangover, no withdrawal, clean as a whistle and right as rain. As for losing control, you think a con man of Jack's caliber would take something that would put his cover at risk?"

"He's not a con man now. But no, I guess he wouldn't."

"Run more risk of losing control off of a couple pints at the pub, lovey." John reached into his holster, pulling out a small black tin. "Matter of fact, I have some on me."

"Put that away, John! What if Jack saw you with it?"

"What would he do if he saw you guzzling caffeine? That's a drug, too, and a hell of a lot more dangerous, I might add." He popped it open and offered it out to her. "If you don't like it, I'll whip up some antidote in the lab, have you off it in ten seconds."

"No, John." Gwen looked down at the little blue capsules. "... It's irresponsible."

"Our shift ended already, Gwen. You're tired, you've been here for twelve hours. Don't you think your teddy bear husband is going to deserve some energy from you tonight? Or would you rather beg off giving him attention again, flop in bed, and hope he doesn't start resenting you for putting him second to your job? You don't think twice about taking Retcon if it's for the good of your marriage." John shook the capsules invitingly.

"You're sure you can reverse it if it goes wrong?" Gwen looked up to see John nod, then looked back down at the tin. She took a deep breath and plucked out a capsule, washing it down with the rest of her energy drink.


	10. Chapter 10

:Okay, brace yourselves for a shameless plugging.. I'm the sort of flaky author who usually has to have a couple of projects going at once. Blame it on my bipolar disorder. At any rate, I've started an anthology called Archives of the Time Agency dealing with Jack & co. in the 51st century. Right now, of course, it's very slim, containing just a re-pub of Kyhl's Story and a fresh tale, The Face of Boe, where I delve into how Jack might have become the Agency's first recruit. Archives, if it gets feedback or interest, will provide some loosely related material to Tripping, as well as a few of my crackpot attempts to put canon into workable theory.:

:**Begging at this point for reviews, please! A very low percentage of hits are leaving any sort of feedback, good or bad, which makes it difficult to keep up with writing. I do spend a lot of time and effort to try to create a story that's enjoyable, so I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a second to let me know if I'm succeeding or if I'm wasting my time and should just stop. I deeply appreciate those who have taken the time to tell me what they think so far. Thanks so much!**:

Chapter Ten

* * *

"Two Optimian fuel tubes, one gross hard oxygen crystals grade six, two hundred feet of magnetic memory wire, non-coated, and one sub-etheric resonator." Ianto set down the box of Torchwood artifacts on the surgery counter. "Will that be all for now, Mr. Stark?"

Stark looked up from his renders, his hair unkempt from lack of attention. "Great, yeah. If I need anything more I'll give you a call. How's it going in there, Marty?"

Martha stepped out from behind the dressing screen, tugging at the zipper of her lightweight wetsuit. "I've got a new respect for surfers. Feel like my bum's being fondled by a bin liner."

Ianto raised a brow. ".. It looks.. pert."

"Thanks, Ianto." Martha gave him a bit of a wiggle. "Can always count on you to notice."

Stark glanced at the admin. "Yeah, so.. I'll call?"

"Just on my way out, sir." Ianto passed a wink to Martha, slipping out into the main Hub. "Oh, hello, Gwen. Still here?"

Gwen scooped up her handbag from her chair. "Just leaving. Rhys rented some movies, so it'll be a quiet night at home."

"Sounds lovely." Ianto smiled. "Shall I look in on John for you?"

"Yeah, keep an eye on him, sweetie." Gwen stepped up, planting a kiss on Ianto's lips, slightly longer than their usual friendly peck. She pulled back slowly, her mouth formed into an oh, then broke into schoolgirl giggles at the young admin's quizzical expression. "Maybe not a quite so quiet night at home, then. Good night, Ianto. Don't stay up too late."

Ianto glanced upward, tasting the kiss on his lips and pondering the spike of empathic energy that had passed between them. He and Jack would be open to sharing their games with Gwen, of course. Jack had as much as invited her in the past and Ianto knew Gwen had an infatuation with their boss, but she was married now and Rhys would probably offer quite prudish objections to sharing his wife with Captain Jack and his boyfriend. "Right, you either. Tell Rhys he's a lucky man."

"He'll be lucky tonight, that's for sure!" Gwen tossed a smile over her shoulder as she started up the stairs.

"Ianto!" came the familiar tenor bellow that always seemed to reach every level of the Hub without the help of the comm system. Ianto grabbed the railing on his side of the Hub and swung himself up the stairwell to Jack's office, feeling a new spring in his step in spite of how long he'd been up. Jack was shifting through the chaotic mess of his personal filing system. Ianto was sure Jack's paperwork would be the one thing that would forever drive him crazy, like how his mother still railed after thirty years of marriage that his father was incapable of rehanging a wet towel, and how his father drily noted his mother's habit of forgetting to refill the car with petrol after she drove. The paper shuffle stopped as Jack looked up. "Where were you? You said you were leaving Owen's when I called you, and that was an hour ago."

"I came straight here." Ianto gestured toward the lab. "Mr. Stark needed a few things from the artifact vault." He tilted his head, trying to understand why Jack was acting so petulant. "Was there something I was supposed to do? I don't remember you asking me to do anything but come back to the Hub."

"No." Jack got up, closing his office door. "It's just that things have been so hectic."

"This is Torchwood. Things are always hectic."

"Which is why we need to make time when we can." Jack took Ianto's hand, leading him to the hatch that led to his private quarters. "Even if we're facing the end of the world at least once a month."

"Actually, it averages out to every seventy-four point six days if that makes it less stressful." Ianto waited for Jack to reach the bottom of the ladder, then followed. When he turned around, he noticed first the difference of the lights. Usually the small chamber was lit by a utilitarian bulb, making Ianto wonder if Jack didn't have a bomb shelter fetish left over from his days in the Blitz. Now it was lit with candles, tucked into the corners of the room, set up on upturned crates. The steamer trunk had even been spruced up, covered with a large lace doily and a vase of flowers. A bottle of wine and two glasses were set up next to it. Bobby Darin crooned quietly from Jack's iHome dock."... What's this?"

Jack leaned against the wardrobe, his hands stuffed in his pockets. "I was hoping it was an attempt at romance."

Ianto smiled, crossing the room to slide his arms around Jack's shoulders. "It's a success. I'm sorry I didn't come in right off."

Jack's arms came up to wrap around his lover, pulling him swaying into a dance. "We haven't done this since Gwen's wedding."

"It can't have been that long." Ianto pressed his cheek against Jack's, sliding his fingers into his hair. Jack's arms tightened and Ianto felt his breath catch. He tipped his head to the side, feeling emotions that welled up over Jack's usual resistance to psychic probing. He knew Jack could feel his searching. He always could, even if he was asleep.

"Practicing your empathy?" Jack's voice was husky. ".. Picking anything up?"

"Jack, I'm not trying to.."

"It's okay." Jack pulled away, putting his hands up to hold Ianto's face and look into his eyes. "Just tell me what I'm feeling."

"Afraid," whispered Ianto. "Uncertain. Confused." Jack let go of him and sank onto the bed. "Jack, what's wrong? You've been acting strange since the Doctor showed up. Are you mad because he asked me to take notes?"

Jack shook his head, rubbing the side of his face. "That's not it. It's about us. It's my fault, and I don't know if I gave you a gift or cursed you."

Ianto took a deep breath, confused himself. He poured a glass of wine and offered it to Jack, sitting down next to him. "Anything you share with me is a gift, Jack."

"Is it?" Jack took the glass, swirling the crimson fluid as he stared into it. "When you love someone, you want to grow old with them, don't you?"

Ianto felt cold drop over his entire body, as if he were being frozen from the inside out. The candles, the wine, the dancing. Was this Jack's way of saying goodbye, of breaking it off before he had to watch his young lover turn into an old man, or get killed in front of him on a mission? "I'll take whatever you're willing to give, but.. if it's too much, if I've been too much of a burden, I understand."

Jack looked up at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You want to break up, right?" Ianto forced a smile, but it faltered. "I understand. I always knew I was lucky to--"

"You're empathy needs work, Ianto." Jack set the wine down and turned to face him, taking his hands in his. "Just shut up and listen, all right? You know they ran an analysis of your blood for the X-factor."

Ianto nodded, his stomach turning. What had they found? Some sign of genetic defect that would end his life with a brain tumor or a heart attack?

"I looked at your readout. Compared it to mine. I don't have the X-factor gene. What happened to me is on a different part of my DNA, a place they didn't look at on yours. Ianto, you have a segment of that same mutation."

Ianto studied the wall before looking back at Jack. "What exactly are you saying?"

Jack dropped his head forward. "When I kissed you for the very first time you were dead, Ianto."

Ianto nodded. "I remember. You brought me back."

"Think about it. If I could do something like that, you think there'd be so many bodies in the cryo vault? You think I wouldn't have used it on Owen when he was shot? Or Tosh when you didn't go back and stop Gray from killing her? Or Rhys when Bilis Manger stabbed him in the future that might have been?" He took a deep breath and looked back into Ianto's eyes. "It was different with you. Whatever Rose did to me, I think I gave you a part of it."

Ianto sat back. "I don't think I'm like you, Jack. I bleed and it doesn't heal right off. I don't think you did anything permanent to me."

"But I did." Jack picked up his wine and handed it to Ianto, standing to pour himself another glass. "I can't tell you how I know, so don't ask, but I don't think you're going to age."

"Jack, you're talking rubbish. Even you age. Remember the grey hair you found?"

"Trust me, Ianto." Jack drank from his glass. "I knew you for twenty years and you didn't age a day, didn't look any older than you do right now."

Ianto's shoulders slumped as the implications hit him. "You knew me. Which means it was sometime before you came back to the 20th century because I don't remember it. Jack, you're not supposed to tell me information like that. Won't it contaminate the timeline?"

"Well if it mattered so much you wouldn't have called me up." Jack emptied the glass. "Which you wouldn't have done if you weren't expecting me to try to find out why you're in my past in the future, and you knew I'd tell you, so this isn't so much a contamination as it is a quantum eddy."

"This line of thought could get very circular. So what now?" Ianto got to his feet, putting his hand on Jack's arm. "Can't we just go on like before, wait and see before we start getting depressed about it? I'm not sure I see too much of a bad side about staying young, unless you don't like the way I look."

Jack chuckled, turning to give Ianto a kiss. "You look fantastic. I never get tired of looking at you. It's just, you know, those grey hairs of mine." Jack shrugged, tilting his chin up. "I mean, I look older than you now, what's it going to be like when I get old enough that people think I'm your father?"

"We snog and set them straight," replied Ianto, unbuttoning Jack's shirt. "Now what do I have to do to get your mind back on romance?" He slid his fingers over the captain's abdomen, tucking the tips of them under his belt.

"Just keep going that direction, lover." Jack pulled him onto the bed, kissing him deeply.

* * *

Gwen turned off the dvd player and rolled over on the sofa to straddle Rhys's legs, her fingers quickly unbuttoning his shirt.

"Oi!" Her husband's protest was somewhat negated by his smile. "It was just comin' up on the big explosions."

"Exactly." She smothered him with a kiss, sliding her fingers over his abdomen, under his belt.

"You're frisky." He watched her kisses trail down his body. "Not that I'm complainin'. I like it."

"Oh, he's right." Gwen paused in her kisses to get Rhys a little more naked. "I can feel it all. The Rift, the stars.. the universe!"

"Glad I'm all that," Rhys grinned, sliding down. "But who's 'he'?"

"John." Gwen threw off her top. "Not interested in talking about him, though." She grabbed Rhys by his shoulders and rolled them both onto the floor, landing on top of him. "I just want you. Now!"

Rhys's eyes widened. "All right then, I'm fine with not talking about work." He helped her out of her jeans and underwear, eager to enjoy some passion. "Haven't seen you like this since our honeymoon."

"Shh.." Gwen put her finger to his lips, then offered him some more distracting moves.

By morning Rhys was happy to see her leave for work. He needed to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

:A big thanks to those who left reviews! Cheers, mates!:

Chapter Eleven

* * *

Jack balanced the three trays of Starbucks cups as he stepped off the invisible lift into the main hub. "Coffee, kids!" He laughed outright at Gwen's surprised expression. "Here you go, your Café Misto. You're looking good. Have a fun night with Rhys?"

Gwen dropped her chin with a coy smile as she took her cup. "Brilliant, thanks. Where's everyone else?"

"Busy busy busy!" He swung his direction for the lab. "Only three days until full moon, after all!"

"That explains it. You and another chance to test if you can die. Must be like Christmas."

"You have no idea. It's exhilarating." He strode into the lab and set a cup in front of Tosh. "Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte. Café Americano for Tony, and Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha for Martha. What is it you're doing in here?"

"Insurance policy," replied Stark, flipping an ionic solder in his hand as he grabbed his cup. "Normally it would take at least a month to get a project like this going anyplace but my own lab, but you people have a really impressive set of toys locked up in your basement. I'd be jealous if it weren't for the fact that I'll probably make some of my own as soon as I get home, with improvements."

Jack nodded. "Ah, sure. I guess I feel pretty good just knowing I made Tony Stark almost jealous of my toy collection."

"His engineering is visionary, I have to hand him that," commented Tosh. "And he's figured out some new uses for some of the artifacts we hadn't even considered."

"Maybe we should recruit him." Jack looked up and down Stark's frame.

Stark held up a warning finger, swinging it side to side. "Already got my own team, remember? I leave things in Rhodey's hands, we'll wind up with Invasion of the Body Snatchers or something." He grabbed a framed out gauntlet and started to install a thrust pod in the palm as Martha stomped up the stairs from the vault with another armload of materials, her feet clad in a pair of silver boots that looked suspiciously familiar to Jack. "Thanks, Marty. Jack brought caffeine."

"Good, I need a bit of a boost." Martha set down her load and scooped up the cup, following Jack's gaze down to her feet. "What?"

"Tell me you didn't scavenge those from the cyberwoman in the vault."

"Just the outer housing. She's not using them."

Jack looked to Tosh accusingly. "Did you think how _he_ might feel about that?"

"We need it, Jack. And it's only external components that weren't the real Lisa. We've stolen the boots off of plenty of dead aliens in the past, metaphorically at least."

"What do you mean? Who's Lisa?" Martha looked from Jack to Tosh and back.

"Ianto's girlfriend," answered Jack. "At least she was before she was converted into cyberwoman."

Stark looked up. "Wouldn't do it if it weren't a time crunch. Tell you what, I'll slap some paint on them, he'll never know. And first chance I get, we'll make some from scratch and put these ones back. Best when they're custom fit anyhow."

"He better never find out." Jack arched a brow at both of his Torchwood team members, getting nods. "I better get everyone else their coffee before it gets cold. Where's Owen?"

"He's training with Logan, John, and Warren," Tosh replied.

"They're down in the vaults playing with swords to be exact." Martha sipped her drink. "Not that I'm not saying thanks for the coffee and all, but don't we have our own coffee maker?"

"Yeah, it hates me. I swear that thing's sentient." Jack walked through the lab and into the spiral stairway to the vaults.

"Actually, I meant where's Ianto?"

Jack's good humor returned, a smile breaking over his face at the memory of his boyfriend snuggled into his bunk, getting his first chance to sleep late in over a month. "Taking the morning off!" he called up the stairs. "Think I wore him out last night!"

The clank of steel and shouting voices guided him to Cell Block 1 in the vaults. Janet, the resident captive weevil, was pacing its small enclosure sideways, pressing its curled hands against the polymer wall that held it in. Its gaze was fixed on Owen, as was always the case if the science officer was within its view. Owen, on the other hand, was much more intent on his opponent as he slid back on his sneakers, bumping into Jack. Jack juggled his tray. "Watch out!"

Owen laughed, turning and dropping his bamboo katana on his shoulder. "Sorry, Jack. Didn't see ya. That java?"

Logan lowered his practice katana as well, walking over to join his student. "Smells good. Don't suppose I could get a shot in it."

"Just straight black, but I'm sure there's a bottle of whiskey around someplace if you really want it." Jack handed a cup to Logan, then one to Owen. "Café Mocha with extra syrup and five sugars, if I remember right."

John and Warren joined them as the smell of coffee reached the end of the vault where they'd been facing off, both of them wielding fully sharpened blades. "Here's a new one, the boss bringin' the coffee," quipped John, looking in high spirits.

"Figured I'd be nice, but if it's going to interfere with your ability to recognize my authority, I can always give your Caramel Macchiato to Janet." Jack dangled the cup in front of John.

"No problem, I never had a problem with you being in charge." John grabbed the cup before Jack could tease him any longer.

Jack smirked. "If I recall, you always liked it. White hot chocolate, right, Warren?"

The winged mutant nodded, taking his cup. "Perfect, you're almost as good as Ianto at this."

"I pay attention, especially to whatever Ianto's doing. So how's it going?"

"John's good enough with a sword we're teaching each other." Warren flashed John a grin.

"I've always been good with penetrating weapons, but I never turn down a new partner." John's returned smile had a lot less innocence.

"Owen's got potential," gruffed Logan. "I figure I can at least get him to a point where he can defend himself if he runs out of bullets, but it'll take a lot longer than three days to have him up to snuff."

"Better not underestimate me," came Owen's retort. "I learn faster than you think."

"I've got high standards, kid." Logan seemed pleased with his pupil's fire, though.

Jack looked down at the last two cups of coffee. "Guess you'd better get back to training, then. Try not to need me for another hour. I've got administrative stuff to do." He made his way out the reinforced door that led to the cryo vault, starting to whistle. The clank of the heavy door behind him was followed closely by a clank ahead, the sound of a cryo chamber being shut. "Martha? Need a hand?" He rounded the corner and stopped, the tray with the last of the coffees dropping from his hand to spill on the floor. "What are you doing here?"

Kyhl stepped back from the wall of square morgue doors, brushing blond bangs out of his grey eyes. He was dressed correctly for the period, but not in a suit. Instead he was wearing jeans and a pullover, preventing Jack from guessing what year he'd come back from. "Helping you out, Jack. I didn't think I'd run into you."

"And what if you ran into yourself?" Jack glanced at the cryo chambers, fighting back the urge to demand information.

Kyhl held up his silver-plated stopwatch, the hand ticking its way around with a steady precision. "I'm pretty sure I won't. I still have forty-seven seconds."

"How many times have you been in here, messing around with our stuff?"

"Need to know, Jack, sorry. I can say it's been a few times. I've always been careful to make sure it doesn't risk paradox. I _do_ keep accurate notes and inventory."

".. I told you last night. I was right, wasn't I?"

Kyhl nodded. "If it helps, it's mostly a gift. Not a curse."

"Mostly?" Jack couldn't help himself; he stepped closer to the blond, still finding himself thinking of Kyhl and Ianto as two different people. Kyhl had authority and confidence that had come from far more years than Ianto had so far. Ianto still had innocence that Kyhl could only fake when he had to. Jack couldn't help but wonder how much of the change he had been a part of. "Am I still good-looking?"

Kyhl laughed. "God, you're so vain." He stepped forward, sliding his hand around the back of Jack's neck as he leaned in to kiss him. "Goodbye, Jack." He opened up his wrist strap as he stepped back, tendrils of Rift energy reaching out to pull him in.

"I still like brunette best!" Jack sighed as Kyhl vanished, the Rift event sealing behind him. He turned to look at the cryo vault, raising his own wrist strap to activate the door that Kyhl had been standing in front of. The interface board of his manipulator beeped a protest of failure. "Locking me out? What are you up to, Kyhl?"

"Jack?" Gwen's voice interrupted his thoughts as she called on his comm. "The RAM is acting up."

Jack mopped up what he could of the spilled coffee with the paper napkins that had been stuffed in the tray. Of course Tosh's efficient Rift Activity Monitor program would have picked up the Rift trip. If he looked back through the records he could probably spot how many times Kyhl had tripped back into Torchwood's headquarters. "I know, Gwen, it's fine. There was a random spike down here, but nothing fell out."

"It's more than a spike, Jack. I really think you need to come have a look at this."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

* * *

"I've never seen it do that," Jack leaned on his knuckles on the work station, his face bathed in blue glow. "Tosh?"

Tosh's fingers flew over the keyboard. "It's geometric in growth. That's why it took this long to trip the alerts. There's been a gradual buildup since the event that brought Warren and the others here, but it was just too low to be noticeable."

"It's getting stronger every minute." Gwen paced the floor behind Jack. "I can _feel_ it, Jack. It used to be just warm, now it's getting hot." She stripped off her jacket.

"Can see that on the-- What do you mean?" Jack looked over his shoulder. "Gwen, you okay?"

"It's almost like watching pressure changes on a volcano. In the past it seems as though there's been minor buildups before large events, but this is concentrated on inversion spikes. If I extrapolate the data and compare it to prior Rift energy events, and considering that this would have the Rift taking things instead of dropping them out..." She slid off her glasses. "Jack, when this goes it could suck in _hundreds_ of people."

Jack snapped his eyes back to Tosh. "But we still can't predict when or where?"

"I've been working on it, but it's not like predicting event spikes," she explained. "I've gotten as far as being able to tell one is coming from the normal spike pattern, but I can't pin them down until they happen, sorry."

"So there's nothing we can do to stop it." Jack brought his fist down on the station. "I hate these things!"

"Getting.. too hot."

Jack spun in time to see Gwen crumple to the floor. He dropped down to lift her shoulders as Tosh stood. "Keep your eyes on that monitor, Tosh. I want you _here_ until we can figure out what's going on with the Rift. Gwen?" He tapped her cheeks lightly. "She's burning up." He hit the comm, then lifted Gwen up in his arms, carrying her for the surgery. "Martha, we need a medic, _now_."

* * *

"No viral or bacterial activity. Mildly dehydrated, but that's probably due to fever." Martha hung a clear IV bag above Gwen as the bio-monitor screen beeped. She turned to look at it, one brow raising. "What's this? Her tox screen is showing a compound I don't recognize. I think she's been poisoned, Jack."

Jack grabbed the monitor and turned it so he could see. "... John!" He hit his comm, placing his fists on his hips as his jaw clenched. "John, would you care to explain to me how your partner wound up with her system full of Havokon?!"

"Havokon? What is it?" Martha looked back to Gwen as she moaned quietly, starting to come around.

"It's a 51st century version of an amphetamine with a phenethylamine chaser."

"Like Ecstasy? She's rolling, you're telling me?"

"Without the addiction or the nasty side effects, yes." Jack crossed his arms. "It shouldn't cause this reaction, except if something incredibly unusual is happening with the Rift. John!"

"Hold your roll, big boy," came John's reply. "I'm on my way up. I only gave her one tiny little capsule."

"One capsule in the system of a 21st century empath living right under the Rift while it's building energy."

"How was I supposed to know? The Rift's building energy? Nobody told me." John walked into the surgery and over to the exam table, leaning down to take Gwen's hand.

Jack grabbed his arm and spun him away from the table, pushing him against the wall. "If anything happens to her, I _will_ kill you."

"You think I'd hurt her?!" John easily yanked his arm away from Jack, sending him sprawling to the floor. "She's my partner, Jack, and with her that means a lot more than it did with you!"

"Both of you stop it!" Martha shouted, then lowered her voice as they both looked at her. "Look, if you know how to reverse it, tell me so I can help her. You can beat the shit out of each other on your own time."

"Use this." John slid a hypodermic insert out of his holster. "I mixed it up just in case she didn't like her trip. Should flush it out of her system in seconds."

Jack picked himself up off the floor, rubbing the side of his face. "Don't _ever_ give drugs to my team, John. Do I make myself clear?"

Martha took the insert, snapping it into the hypo gun quickly. She started to slide the needle into Gwen's arm when her hand came across and grabbed Martha's wrist.

"Don't," whispered Gwen. "I can feel the Rift coming." She opened her eyes. "With the Havokon, I can feel it coming."

John leaned over the table, brushing Gwen's bangs off her forehead. "Don't want you to get hurt, lovey. Might be time to turn this off now, right?"

Gwen gave him a weak smile. "I know when and where. I can see it reaching for us."

"What do you mean, Gwen?" Jack pushed John aside. "Who is 'us'?"

Gwen closed her eyes again, her skin beginning to glow with golden radiance. "Everyone with the X-factor. It's connecting to all of us."

"Shit!" Jack pulled Gwen up into his arms, clinging to her. "Gwen, stay here! Gwen!" His arms slipped through her as she was drawn into the light. He fell forward on the table. "No! Gwen!"

"Jack!" Tosh's voice was strained over the comm. "Jack, the Rift inversion is going off! It's striking all over the city.. and inside the Hub!"

John looked around at Martha and Jack. "How many of us had the X-factor?"

"Gwen, Owen, and Ianto. And of course the mutants." Martha gripped the edge of the table. "What is happening, Jack?"

"We just lost half of Torchwood to the Rift." Jack's voice was low, shaky. "And we can't track where they've gone."

* * *

Owen stumbled, falling into Logan's steadying arm. "Bloody hell, what was that?!"

Logan shifted his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other, squinting and looking around at the darkness. "We just tripped the Rift."

"Logan?" Warren made his way toward them carefully. "Where are we? Where's Torchwood?"

"What the hell am I, the answer man?" Logan handed his practice katana to Owen, sniffing the air. "Smells like forest. Huh. Stick with me." He set out, tracking the familiar scents he could pick out against the earthy wet scents of the wilderness, his eyes scanning for any signs of movement. He spotted her, pushing herself up from a lying position, her hair swinging down to block her face doing nothing to mask her identity. She wasn't one to wear perfume, but she had a fondness for vanilla scented bath products that co-mingled with her individual musk. "Gwen? You hurt?"

Gwen started, then shook her head, looking up. "Is that you, Logan? Where's everyone else?"

"Owen and Warren are here with me." He sniffed the air again, waiting for the wind to shift and give him more information. "Only other human I smell in the area is... Ianto."

He turned, breaking into a run as he followed the scent of lavender soap, wine, Jack's evolved pheromones, and panic, ignoring the yells from his companions who couldn't keep up in the moonless black. He slowed when he spotted the outline of an arm and leg, the owner of them hidden as best as he could manage behind a tree, oak by the smell. He scanned the surrounding area quickly, but nothing more threatening than an owl showed itself. He put the panic down to the circumstances themselves and strode forward. "It's okay, kid. Nothing dangerous here."

Ianto started, pressing closer to the tree. "Um.. Logan? You can stay there. Are we alone?"

"The others are back there." Logan walked forward. "You okay?"

Ianto shook his head. "Where's Jack? You don't have to come over here."

"Don't smell him, except on you." Logan stopped. "Why don't you want me to come closer?"

"I don't have any clothes," admitted Ianto, clearly embarrassed. "I was asleep.. in Jack's room.."

"That's enough, I can figure out the rest." Logan stopped the explanation. "Relax, kid, you don't even want to know how many times I've walked out on Warren tanning in the buff. Not like I'm gonna look." He turned his back to Ianto, sliding off his jacket. "Follow my voice. I've got my jacket held out behind me. You can use that to cover up until you get something better." He felt the jacket lifted from his hand and chuckled. "When you're ready I'll call the others over here."

"Ready. And thank you." Ianto's voice was much calmer, although still not steady.

Logan let out a sharp whistle. "I found him!" He crossed his arms, listening to their bumbling progress with amusement. Owen seemed to be particularly unhappy.

"Bloody hate the outdoors! If it were up to me, I'd mow down every forest and pave over the whole lot of them." His tirade was cut off by a series of sneezes. "BLASTED MOLDS!"

"Oh, shut up," Gwen broke in. "It's a lucky thing we all wound up together. There's got to be others, though. The Rift reached out to its full radius." She bumped into Ianto and gave him a hug. "Oh, you're all right. And half naked. You're going to freeze."

"I'll be fine." Ianto edged away in the interests of modesty.

"You seem to know what happened, Gwen." Warren wrapped his wings up tightly. "Mind sharing?"

"I can't explain it exactly. All I know is the Rift started swelling with energy, then reached out and took everyone with the X-factor. Dropped us all here, wherever here is. That means there's hundreds of innocent people here who we have to find and take care of."

"Fine." Logan stretched. "We'll look for them as soon as we have ourselves taken care of, and as soon as we have a clue where we are."

"I can tell you that." A white blur of wings flashed through the group and circled them. The owl flew back into their midst, transforming to a woman, her figure draped in a long feathered white cloak. "You're in Avalon."

* * *

:If you've read this far, why not take a second and leave a review or comment? They're greatly appreciated. Ta!:


	13. Chapter 13

:Thanks to everyone who reviews. It makes my day to hear your opinions and what I can improve on. Speaking of which, in the interest of making it fit a little better with the _Archives_ timeline, I made a tiny change to have Jack refer to having known Kyhl for twenty rather than ten years. It's more logical and would give him a longer time to observe Kyhl's odd lack of aging.:

:And speaking of _Archives of the Time Agency_, I posted a new chapter/story in the anthology, 'Sixteen Candles', in which Jack's sixteenth birthday ushers in changes in his and Kyhl's relationship. Wonder if it's still a Janto, or is it a JacKyhl? Either way, I would dance a Welsh-Irish-American dance of joy if you would have a look at it and tell me what you think.:

Chapter Thirteen

* * *

"How many of these inversion spike events did you pick up, Tosh?" Stark stared at the coffee machine as if he was facing down a certain oversized green mutant he'd worked with in the past.

"Two hundred and sixty-four besides the five in the Hub."

"I just got off the phone with the police," added Martha. "They've got two hundred eleven witnessed reports of vanishings, so we can assume there's a few more that slipped off without anyone noticing."

"Okay, so if it's happened before, where do they-- Coffee!" He grabbed a mug and shoved it under the stream of black that poured from the machine. "--go?"

"If it follows past inversions, anywhere in the universe, over any period of time," answered Tosh.

"That narrows it down." Stark took a sip from the mug and gagged. "This machine defies all laws of physics. What dimension did it fall out of?"

"I don't know." Tosh shrugged. "Ianto found it in the archives somewhere. He's the only one who can make it work."

"That alone should qualify him for the X-men." Stark dropped the mug in the sink in disgust. "Okay, people, we're down five fighters and we still have a deadline. Tosh, probably best if you stick to trying to solve this unscheduled Rift trip issue, find out where they went to. Marty, we've got more reason than ever to get working on our project. John, you and Jack should be in charge of trying to get our friends back, so maybe you should go find out where the hell he is."

John nodded, tapping his sheathed katana against his boots. "I think I can find him."

* * *

Jack sat on his bed, pressing Ianto's shirt to his cheek. It was the burgundy one with the French cuffs and Jack had teased him that it made him look like a maitre d' in a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. He closed his eyes, smelling the scent of his lover in the weave. A hot tear spilled over his cheek as his fingers tightened around the cloth. The sound of a pair of boots landing at the base of his ladder wasn't enough to pull him away from the remnant. "Leave me alone, John."

"He's not dead, you jackass." John strode over and sat on the bed next to Jack. "Stop mournin' him and let's find him."

"I _know_ he's not dead!" Jack looked up, his eyes flashing. "I'm not worried about him making it out of there alive. In case you don't remember, I've lost people before who didn't die."

John pursed his lips. "Right, Gray. But we don't know anyone bad has your eye candy, and let's say someone does: shouldn't we be out getting him back soon as possible then?"

"I've seen what victims of the Rift are like when they come back, if they come back." Jack reached for the photo he kept tucked on the wall behind his bunk, taken at Gwen's wedding. In it they were dancing, late into the reception. Ianto's head was dropped on Jack's shoulder, his eyes closed, a smile of utter contentment on his face, while Jack was looking over his shoulder to someone off camera, his eyes wistful. "I don't want him to have any more bad memories, John."

"Better break up with him now, then," John quipped, taking the photo and putting it back. "Look, Jack, I'm worried about all of them, too. Maybe not Owen, he's a tosser, but Gwen and even your Ianto, I want them back. Toshiko and Martha want them back. I know Tony wants his boys back, too. But we're not gettin' anywhere without having you back first. Like it or not, you're our leader, so blow your nose, hitch up your knickers, and act like it."

Jack opened his mouth to protest, then cracked up. "Hitch up my knickers? Where the hell did you come up with that one?"

John cracked a grin. "Top of m'head. C'mon, you wanker. Show them why you're Captain Jack Harkness."

* * *

Owen sulked as he trailed after the group. "When are we gonna get out of this bloody forest? I hope there's a decent hotel at the end of this hike."

"Owen, we all know you're miserable." Ianto picked his way carefully over the pine needles that littered the path, his bare feet already bruised and aching, contributing along with his low blood sugar to a less amiable mood than usual. "Give it a fucking rest already!"

"We'd get out of here faster if you'd move your arse." Owen pushed Ianto forward as he saw the rest of the party waiting ahead of them. Morning sun shone unhindered on the mutants, Gwen, and their guide, who had given her name as Saoren, claiming to be of a race known as the Curdie. "Finally!"

Saoren smiled at the laggers, then gestured with one arm. "There is the city of Maehewyn, where people dwell." Before them stretched a meadow, a stone wall rising from just beyond it, so close they could hear the murmur of morning bustle and catch on the wind the even more welcome scent of baking bread. "If you're looking for those of your kind, they'll be there."

"Thank you, Saoren, you've been brilliant." Gwen cast a smile to the shapeshifter. She was the only one of them that didn't look even mildly exhausted. "The people we're looking for, though, would've come the same way we did, so they'll likely be lost, not in a city."

Saoren tilted her head, large golden eyes unblinking. "People don't stay in the forest. Sometimes they get lost, and we show them the way out, but the city is where people live."

"Either way, getting food and some clothes for the kid here should be our first priority." Logan scanned the city. "We could do with a sleep, too. Most of us, at least." He eyed Gwen. "It won't do us any good to search for survivors in our current state, agreed?"

"I feel fine," Gwen answered. "I can keep looking, now that I know where the rest of you will be staying."

"I think it'd be better for us to stick together for now." Logan looked Warren over, the winged mutant all but asleep on his feet. "Once Warren's had some rest, he might be healed enough to fly and make the searching a lot easier."

"Please, Gwen?" Ianto tightened the jacket around his waist for what seemed the hundredth time. "At least get some food with us."

Saoren yawned, stretching out her arms over her head, her cloak giving her the illusion of still having her wings. "It's time for me to roost, too. When the sun sets I will fly into the city and find you, if you like. People don't do well looking for things by themselves in the forest. Don't worry about the others. Any people those like me find will be brought to the city anyhow."

"There, see?" Owen crossed his arms. "No reason for us to stand out here in this disgusting patch of filth any longer, Gwen."

Gwen looked back into the shadowed trees, frowning. "Okay. We'll wait for you, Saoren. Thanks."

The Curdie smiled sleepily, shifting back to her owl form and flying up into the treetops. "Until the night comes.."

"Wake up, playboy." Logan nudged Warren, pointing him for Maehewyn as he flicked the power on his image generator. "Let's find you a bed and breakfast."

* * *

Jack stood behind Tosh's chair, studying the screens with his arms crossed. One display showed a continuing readout of the current RAM while a second showed a loop of the inversion events, a third displayed the map of locations the Rift reached out to. "There's no pattern to this. How can we possibly figure out where they went in time to get them back?"

"Why not trip the Rift ourselves?" John rifled through Owen's desk for candy, pulling out a box of warheads.

Jack shook his head. "If we go anywhere in that kind of energy reading it would overwhelm the manipulators and we could get lost ourselves."

"Well someone tripped right before it happened." John poured a handful of sour candies and popped them in his mouth.

Jack eyed him sideways. "How do you know that?"

John held up his wrist strap. "Lot of what I did wouldn't look too good if another agent dropped by and saw, would it? Programmed it with the activation frequencies of every agent I knew so I could detect if anyone was spying on me." He made a face as the candies kicked in. "Last activation was about five minutes before the big one, inside the Hub, I'd guess either in the vaults or the morgue."

Tosh blinked, pulling up the timeframe on the records. "He's right, Jack. There were two spikes within ten minutes of each other. That can't be random activity."

Jack shrugged, lifting his chin. "Not likely it's related to the current problem. Let's not get distracted."

"Why not take a peek at the CCTVs, beautiful?" John walked over to stand behind Tosh's other shoulder. "Won't take a second, will it? Maybe it's us."

"It wouldn't be us because I'm not authorizing any trips." Jack grabbed the remote. "It's too close anyway. We'd run into ourselves for sure. Let's focus on solving this."

Tosh closed down the window with the double event recording. "There's one thing I think we can be hopeful about. When the Rift opens in two places simultaneously, the ejected persons or artifacts are usually from the same origin point and time."

"So you think that everyone that was taken by the inversion went to the same place?" Jack smiled. "Suddenly I feel a lot more optimistic."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

* * *

"Food," came the rather desperate mumble from Ianto. All of the Welshman's usual decorum and appearance of modesty was lost as he spotted an apple cart and pushed Gwen aside to get to it. He grabbed a large golden globe in each hand, taking bites from each in turn.

"You plan to pay for that, aye?" The cart's owner leaned across, a grizzled large man with an unusually large nose dressed like one of the extras in Robin Hood.

Ianto looked up, chewing, then back down at the loosening and now askew denim jacket tied around his waist. "F'got m'wallet." He crunched another mouthful from the apple in his right hand.

"I've got it, mate." Owen stepped up next to the admin, pulling his wallet out of his pocket, then hesitating. "I don't think they take bank cards here."

The proprietor nested an impossibly large fist into his other impossibly large hand with a grinding motion, his lips pulling back into a sneer that revealed thick yellow teeth and protruding canines. "Well apples cost copper, _mate_."

"Copper?" Owen put his wallet back and dug through his front pockets. "How much?"

"Six for a ha'penny, penny for a baker's dozen."

Owen smirked, holding up a two-pence coin. "Then you owe us change. And four more apples."

"Thanks, Owen," offered Ianto between bites as he was dragged by his elbow back to the others. "I owe you."

"Yeah, think I can let it pass. I make, what, three times what you do?" The doctor let go of the admin, doling out the other apples to the rest of the group. "It ain't Wheatabix and Hershey's syrup, but it'll do for a start."

"Ew, Owen, you turn me off my appetite completely with that." Gwen munched into her apple anyway.

"It's not that bad, actually. Pretty good for hangover food." Logan looked around the 'city' again, his supersenses not particularly needed to pick up the smell of horses, cattle, pigs, and chickens, along with their respective leavings. Mingling behind it was the smell of bread, raw meat, and produce, and under that, a permeating reek of unwashed mankind. "This place isn't too modernized, is it."

"Comparable to fifth, maybe sixth century." Ianto tossed the scraps of cores behind him on the muddy patch of road. "You can tell by the way the stones are laid up in the walls there. That and the manner of dress. I'd say it's market day considering the number of farm animals being brought in. Honestly, if it weren't for the city here, I'd say this was Glastonbury."

"And he's back, ladies and gentlemen," Owen smirked. "Whoever thought the city would stink worse than the countryside?"

"How do you know all this, Ianto?" Gwen tucked her hair behind her ear. "We don't have GPS, or at least I don't see where you're hiding it."

Ianto looked a bit shocked. "I'm _Welsh._ King Arthur? Round Table? You know, _Merlyn_?" He held his hand up to indicate the height of the Doctor. "I was a bit mad on the stories when I was growing up. Dad and I used to take holidays in some of the historical sites."

"That's why you were so much a fanboy when you got to go in his TARDIS." Warren offered a sleepy smile.

"Well, once I knew he wasn't taking Jack away this time."

"So we're in Arthurian England? What's this, the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages?" Gwen took another bite of apple.

"Remind me not to take you on my team for history quiz," commented Ianto. "Saoren said we were in Avalon, right? That's where Arthur is buried. See that hill over there? It's a little higher than Glastonbury Tor is, but accounting for erosion and time, it's got the same shape and features."

"Does it have a hotel?" mumbled Warren, leaning against the wall of the market. "I've got to rest if my wings are going to heal."

"If we can find the abbey, they won't ask for money." Ianto started down the street, getting a few glances from passersby as he tightened his makeshift sarong. "I'm not familiar with the name Maehewyn in Glastonbury's history, though."

"That's because we're in Otherworld." Warren dragged himself after. "Brian lived here for a while. Sort of ran things. It's like a rotation duty for Captain Britains."

"You mean John's gonna take a turn as King of Muckland?" Owen scoffed. "Not sure who I feel more sorry for, them or him."

"We must have fallen through one of the Twelve Roads. Maehewyn might be a local name related to Melwas," mused Ianto. "That would explain the similarity to Glastonbury."

"Pertinent details, kid," growled Logan. "Give us the bullet points that would help us out, not a lesson in linguistics."

"Right, sorry. Helpful bits. Let's see. Glastonbury Tor is believed to be something of a hub for the ley lines. Those are mystical lines of energy drawn between key megaliths and monuments in ancient Britain and Europe. Places where you find abbeys and monastery ruins in our time. It's speculated that the pathways between Avalon's dimension and our world ran along the strongest ley lines. The Twelve Roads."

"Then all we have to do is find one of the roads and we can get everyone home?" Gwen smiled. "Brilliant!"

"Not exactly," cautioned the young Welshman. "The road guardians rebelled according to the legends. They wanted to cause chaos between the worlds and isolate Merlyn so he wouldn't help our world's people any more, so they mixed up the roads. Anyone traveling those roads wouldn't get back home. They'd be scattered to the winds."

"Putting that in Rift terms, I'd say these roads were actually stable portals." Logan's eyes kept up a continual sweep of the townsfolk, but they weren't drawing too much attention in spite of being out of costume for the local fashion. "So the rogue guardians set the exit point to random, and anyone tripping the Rift from this side was screwed."

Ianto nodded. "That sounds like it would fit. In order to make it safely home, you had to have a sacred key. Speculation is they're any of a number of magical artifacts."

"Like Brian's Amulet of Right." Warren looked over to Logan. "He said it was a key to Otherworld once."

"Nice, but we don't have Brian or his amulet." Logan looked back to Ianto. "So what else can you tell us about Glastonbury Tor?"

"Um, it's the supposed entry to the land of fairies."

"No," protested Gwen. "We're not dealing with that lot again."

"I'm with Gwen on that one." Owen shuddered. "Nasty little buggers."

Ianto half-smiled. "I wasn't in the field for that investigation, so I'll trust your word. It's where Arthur was supposedly buried. And gateway to the Underworld. Oh, and where Joseph of Arimathea hid the Holy Grail."

"You really take this visitBritain cover story bullshit seriously, don't you, brat," commented Owen drily. "You should open an info centre for this mudhole."

"Leave him alone, Owen," snapped Gwen. "He's being helpful. Unlike somebody else, who's just being an ass."

"Oi! I bought his apples so his brain would work again!"

"That's no reason for you to call him names!"

"He _likes_ it when I call him names! I was calling him a brat well before you joined on!"

"You two mind keeping your unresolved sexual tension under wraps?" Logan glanced to the side, his voice dropping to just above a whisper. "We've picked up a tail."

* * *

John followed Jack into his office, closing the door behind him. "You know, the reason why I was a better con man than you is I did a better job lying."

Jack looked up at him darkly, sitting down at his desk. "Don't start, John."

"You're trying to hide something about the Rift tripper, and you're not doing it too well, mate." John leaned on the edge of the desk, fixing his eyes on Jack. "If it wasn't one of us, who was it? You been in touch with what's left of the Agency?"

"No." Jack rolled his eyes. "What does it matter? Nothing happened."

"C'mon, Jack, you know you were never able to keep something from me if I wanted to find it out. I'll just keep at it until I wear you down."

"It was Kyhl, all right?!" Jack glowered up at John. "It had absolutely nothing to do with you and I don't know what he came for and he's gone!"

"The Director of the Time Agency, our boss, the man who recruited both of us and vanished right before everything went to hell, and the sweetest shag I ever had in my life, was tripping into our vault?"

Jack growled, standing and leaning across the desk to grab John's collar. "He never loved you! You meant nothing to him!"

"Aren't we jealous?" John smirked. The smirk slowly faded as his eyes dropped to the desk with Ianto's abandoned belongings on it, the silver-plated stopwatch sitting on top of the pile. "Oh.. bloody.. hell." He pushed Jack's hand away with a light flick. "Ianto Jones.. is Kyhl Davies." He looked back to Jack. "Why didn't I recognize him? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I had my _memory_ wiped, remember? Things that happened before I left the Agency are a little fuzzy sometimes. I only put it together myself a few days ago."

"Doesn't explain why I didn't recognize him, though." John picked up the stopwatch. "Unless it has something to do with this."

"His stopwatch?" Jack raised a brow. "What would it have to do with anything?"

"Not an ordinary stopwatch, mate. It's a Rift artifact. I borrowed it from him once. Why do you think I slept with him in the first place?"

Jack fixed his eyes on the stopwatch. "What does it do?"

"Not really sure. He caught me before I could use it. All he told me is it came from Gallifrey originally and he got it from his first love."

"I think I gave it to him." Jack frowned, trying to think. "About a year ago. He likes timing things, and it gave him something to do, so I gave it to him when we were using the Risen Mitten."

"Where'd you get it?"

Jack shook his head. "I can't really remember. I think I found it in on the floor at Torchwood One."

"You've lived so long you're senile."

"I had a two thousand year sabbatical, give me a break!" Jack focused on the watch. "And I think I know why it might be hard to remember." He broke into a grin. "The Doctor uses the same kind of technology for the TARDIS. It creates a kind of barrier that makes you tend to ignore it, put it out of your mind."

John's eyes widened. "Bloody sneak. He always had his stopwatch with him, so once he wasn't there, we'd have a bit of amnesia."

Jack eyed his ex-partner, then reached up and grabbed the watch, putting it in his pocket. "Perfect tool for a thief or a con man. I think I'd be more trustworthy with it than you."

John crossed his arms with a sly grin. "Makes you wonder if our eye candy Kyhl was really the choir boy he came off as, doesn't it?"

Jack opened his mouth, then closed it again, his brow furrowed. "Come to think of it, he had the qualifications. You don't think he might have been even better at it than us, do you?"

"Never trust the quiet ones, Jack."

* * *

:I'd love it if you took a second to share your thoughts and suggestions with me. I live for reviews! I'm getting rather discouraged that, in spite of the positive support from those who review, and the growing number who have the story on alert, I'm getting response from only a small percentage of the readers. At well over 3,000 hits so far, I've got a less than 1 review rate per hit. So...

_**PLEASE REVIEW SO I DON'T DROP THE STORY FOR LACK OF FEEDBACK! YES, I'M HOLDING THE STORY RANSOM OUT OF DESPERATION!**_

And while you're at it, let me know if you think I should add a story about Kyhl and John or maybe a stopwatch story to Archives of the Time Agency. Ta!:


	15. Chapter 15

:Thanks so very much to those who reviewed. It really helped since this chapter was very complicated and difficult to write, and I apologize in advance for my very sucky French. As always, your comments and opinions are truly valued.:

:While struggling through this chapter, I did take some breaks from banging my head on the keyboard long enough to churn out another contribution to Archives of the Time Agency for those who are interested. Stowaway tells the story of Kyhl and Jack's meeting with a very persistent young street rat. See how quickly you can figure him out and make me happy with a review, please? Next up is looking to be the story of Jack's pregnancy and how that can be plausibly handled in a quantum situation.:

Chapter Fifteen

* * *

Gwen dropped down to tie her shoe, glancing between her elbow and knee to see behind them. "I see him," she said quietly. "Blue hooded cloak, about ten metres back?"

Logan nodded, scanning ahead of them for an advantageous location. "Not like it's much of a threat. Only one, so it's more likely a lookout or a spy, or maybe a thief casing us for when we go to sleep. I'd like to find out what they're up to, though."

Gwen stood up, taking Logan's arm and leaning against him as they continued, smiling as if just chatting up a beau. "May be five on one, but Warren's pretty much done in and Ianto doesn't have pants, much less a handgun tucked in the waistband. I'm thinking we should split up. You, me, and Owen keep walking on a bit and let Ianto and Warren slip into a side street, lure our friend after them. We'll double back, come in behind, and get the drop on him before he can call for help."

Logan arched a brow. "Hell, you really were a cop, weren't you. Okay, we'll play it your way, constable."

Owen smirked. "We do have her on our team for more than her garden gate smile." He moved ahead to tell the other two the plan.

"Still haven't figured out your mutant talent?" Logan tilted his head, still scouting for the best spot.

Gwen shook her head, searching the other side of the street. "I like to think of myself as having to work for my talents. Not saying anything against you and Warren. You're both amazing. I'm just not holding out to be anything special."

"Don't sell yourself short, kid." Logan directed her gaze to his side with a movement of his thumb. "There's a good spot. Rooftops too high for an ambush if he's got friends with him, entrance too narrow for an escape once we have him penned in." He raised his voice to be heard by the rest of their group. "Hey, Owen, let those two go off and crash. They're just holding us back."

Owen clapped the Welshman and the blond mutant both on the back as he whispered, then stepped back. "We'll just catch up with you after we've finished shoppin' then."

Ianto nodded. "Good time for a rest, right, Warren?" He steered his companion toward the alley, Warren managing to act even more dead on his feet.

"Now let's see if he takes the bait," whispered Gwen, following Owen ahead at a leisurely pace. She focused her empathic senses on the person following them, her natural skills still enhanced by the Havokon. She felt the person pause as they separated, then smiled as she felt the focus of their attention shift from her. She gave Logan's arm a squeeze and he nodded.

"Yeah, I could feel him moving on." He looked back over his shoulder, then tapped Owen's back and tipped his head toward the alley's entrance. The three circled to the other side of the street, cutting back in very little time to follow the pursuer.

Ianto and Warren turned at the end of the alley, fixing their eyes on the hooded figure, who immediately stopped, then looked over its own shoulder to see the trap that had been sprung. Warren drew his sword, keeping it down by his leg. "Hi there, can we help you?"

The figure looked front and back, then tilted its head. "Wait a moment!" it exclaimed in a feminine voice accented in French. "Mon dieu, do I see before me X-men?"

Logan furrowed his brow, stepping forward. "I know that voice from somewhere."

Warren blinked. "I do, too. Who are you?"

The hood was thrown back, exposing pale skin and golden hair held back under a cowl wrap, silver ornaments like small horns rising up on either side. Glowing white eyes shone from her face as she broke out in a musical laugh. "You know my son and daughter, I believe. I may have even gotten into a tiny bit of mischief that could have led to misunderstanding, que sera sera." She exposed her teeth in a grin. "Everything is fine now, I love having visitors. How is Kurt, anyhow?"

"Margali?" Logan smirked. "Looks like you're playing tame today."

"Who?" Gwen watched the odd woman, having a hard time pinning down her emotions as friendly or hostile.

"She's Kurt's adopted mother," explained Warren. "He's one of us, only he's in Excalibur right now, one of the ones facing the evil Braddock. He's Nightcrawler."

"Like the worms?" Gwen had a hard time trusting someone whose eyes she couldn't quite see.

"More like a fuzzy blue elf with a tail." offered Logan.

"Sounds adorable." Ianto adjusted the jacket, becoming aware of how acutely underdressed he was in the presence of the tall blond.

"Oh, dear, pardonnez-moi." Margali stepped forward, sliding off her cloak, revealing an outfit that seemed to be comprised of a steel bikini and quite a bit of loose white gauze. She swooped over to Ianto, the Welshman backing up in surprise before she draped the cloak around his shoulders, clasping it at his neck with maternal attention. "There we go, mon cher. Isn't he just a cherub?" She cupped Ianto's cheek in her hand, then did the same to Warren, cooing over them like a doting aunt. "Poor Angel, you need sleep, and the dear naked one needs a bath. Why are we standing here?! We must go to mon chåteau and I will take good care of Kurt's friends."

"Should we trust her, Logan?" Gwen turned to the older mutant.

"No, but do you see much of an alternative? I think she might just kidnap the kid if we don't let her have him."

"I'm not exactly available!" protested Ianto. "I do have a mother, you know."

"She is not here, mon cher," purred Margali. "I will do for her as any mother would wish to be done, I will look after you as if you were my own."

"Just go along with it, kid." Logan shifted, taking the opportunity to stretch. "She has a thing for strays."

"I'm not a stray." Ianto gave the scantily clad woman an appeasing smile. "And my name's Ianto."

"Ianto!" Margali clapped. "So sweet, so quaint."

"This is Owen and Gwen." Logan finished the introductions. "You have a place near here, you said?"

"Oui, come close, come close." She motioned them all toward her. "We shall have food and wine and you will tell me all about this evil Braddock and then we will plan how to destroy him." She raised her hand in the air, circling it gracefully from her wrist. A dark wind surrounded them, blocking their view of anything but her eyes, then died down again.

Owen looked around at their new surroundings, an elegant dining room in a stone castle. Velvet and tapestries hung from the walls around a long table filled with bowls of fruit and baskets of bread. "Bloody French," he muttered.

* * *

"Well," said Owen, smirking at his Torchwood colleague, "you certainly fit in now."

Ianto stared forlornly at the ceiling as Gwen and Logan looked up from their soup course. Two spoons splashed lobster bisque onto the white lace tablecloth. "I know, it's horrendous. It's what she insisted I wear."

"No, really." Gwen struggled not to laugh. "You pull it off quite well, Ianto."

"He looks like he should be on stage with Sigfried and Roy." Logan's expression mixed pity with disgust.

Ianto glanced into the mirror on the wall, a whimper escaping his lips. Far from his tailored suits or even his casual kit of jeans and an oxford shirt under a light jacket, he was now clad in black satin leggings, faun suede boots folded at the knee, and a long-sleeved thigh-length tunic of sequined gold lame with a glittering beaded black sash. "Why is she doing this to me?"

"She owns a carnival, kid. You're taking it better than I would."

"Hold on, mate, look over here. Perfect!" Owen snapped a shot on his cell phone. "That one is a keeper."

Ianto dropped his face in his hand in humiliation. "All I want is my own pants. Is it too much to ask?"

"Mon cher!" Margali glided into the room and over to Ianto, admiring his clothing. "Don't you look exquisite?" She pinched his cheek as he looked up. "You would steal the show in Paris."

"I'm begging you to stop doing that to me, ma'am," Ianto pled quietly to no avail.

Margali granted him a smile of maternal devotion and stroked his hair, then led him to a seat at the table, motioning another bowl of soup into existence. "There you go, eat, eat! You're too thin." She sat down between the mortified young admin and Owen, looking across the table to Logan. "Warren is perfectly happy, sleeping like a baby in Kurt's very own bed. Now, tell me what you're doing in Otherworld and who is evil Braddock?"

Logan propped his elbow on the table. "We fell through the Rift from Cardiff in an alternate Earth."

"It took a bunch of people with the X-factor gene," injected Gwen. "We have to find them, they're innocent civilians."

"Which we'll do when we have Saoren and Warren both helping," continued Logan. "Meanwhile we need to find a key to get through the Rift safely again, because their Earth is in danger from the same guy who attacked our world."

"Well who is it?" Margali poured herself a glass of wine.

"Calls himself Melehan." Logan scratched his sideburns.

"Him?" Margali frowned. "He is so meddlesome. A very capable practitioner of the Winding Way, I must admit. Formidable, even. But no sense of romance. What does he want?"

"He's making Captain Britains vanish and replacing them with dark versions. Like the one that's going after Kurt. He took out four other Captain Britains before he hit our world."

Margali's eyes narrowed. "So he is looking for the Amulet of Right?"

Logan arched a brow. "Why would he be looking for it?"

"Because, mon cher, you need both the Amulet of Right and the Sword of Might to reshape the cosmos. I don't see any lesser reason why he would go about making such a mess."

"Hold on," Gwen leaned forward. "I'm falling behind here. What are these things, Amulet of Right and Sword of Might?"

Margali waved her hand . "Let me see, how do I put it? When a Captain Britain is chosen, they must make the choice between two paths, always opposing, the light and the dark. When Kurt's friend Brian was chosen, he was given the choice between the Amulet of Right, which is the path of justice, and the Sword of Might, the path of violence. So many rules, it's all quite a headache. Anyhow, he chose the amulet. There was another from his world who was, for a time, Captain Britain. She chose the Sword of Might. That put both opposing paths on that Earth when Brian went back. If one person gains both, voila, ultimate power."

All four of them stared at her. "That can't be good," muttered Owen.

"Hang on," said Logan, furrowing his brow. "So he was going through the worlds, looking for one where both items are present? And if he has Brian's amulet, all he needs to do is get the Sword of Might from Kelsey to hold ultimate power."

"I wonder what John's choices were," mused Gwen.

"It is not so dire, mons chers." Margali sipped her wine. "It is possible there are other worlds where both paths are present. Merlyn tends to lose things when he wanders, after all. All that is needed is to put two other paths together and it will give enough power to repel him."

Owen leaned back in his chair. "Now that's interesting, because our Rift tends to be where lost things fall out, and we've found that a lot of them pair up."

"Like the Risen Mitten and the Life Knife?" Gwen offered.

"Torchwood has eight hundred sixty-one artifacts still awaiting analysis." Ianto set down his spoon carefully. "We would have to go through all of them and find the right two that are opposing. And we only have a day and a half left."

"Then we'd better get back through the Rift as soon as possible." Logan looked to Margali. "Are you going to help or not?"

"Certainement," purred the sorceress. "Full moon at the city under the Rift while my powers are at their strongest? It sounds like fun."


	16. Chapter 16

:Sorry about missing a day in my posting, there. I was suffering some serious sleep deprivation and, in the interest of my writing being at the very least coherent, I took a day off to catch up on the snoozes. Big happy dances of joy for my reviewers, by the way. You make it all worthwhile!:

Chapter Sixteen

* * *

"The sun's setting. She should be here soon." Warren gave Gwen a smile as they waited outside the walls of Maehewyn. "Don't worry, we'll find everyone."

Gwen nodded. "I can feel them out there."

Warren's eyes widened. "You can sense the X-factor?"

"Ever since John gave me the Havokon I sensed something out there. Since we got here, it's been getting stronger, to the point where I can feel each one of them." She looked up at him. "Why? It'll help us find them."

"I know," he said, a hint of awe in his tone. "That's a class three mutant skill. You're going to have to come up with a code name."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Gwen does just fine for me, thanks. I doubt Rhys would be warm up to the idea of me playing superhero. Torchwood and him take up all of my time already."

Warren shaded his eyes against the last of the sun's rays as the shape of an owl separated from the silhouettes of the trees, flying toward them. "Being in Torchwood's pretty much like being a superhero as it is. Here she comes."

Saoren landed, taking humanoid form. "Hello, friends. Are you ready to look for the others?"

Warren spread his wings, curling them to feel the lift of the breeze. "I'm ready. Gwen?"

Gwen stepped in front of him, feeling him move in close behind her and wrap his arms around her. "You just promise me you won't let me go, Warren."

Warren laughed, lifting her into the air as he jumped up, his wings driving them high enough to soar over the trees. "I've got you. You just tell us where to go." He flew out over the forest, the owl swooping around them to lead the way.

* * *

"I still want my trousers." Ianto surveyed his modified look in the mirror. He had managed to shed the despised gold lame when he went to bed, dropping it out the window of Margali's keep into the depths of darkness below. He slid on the denim jacket that Logan had generously insisted he keep after having worn it as a skirt for so long and turned to Owen. "How is this?"

Owen snickered. "With those shiny pants and boots you look like you're one of those chorus line boys lookin' for a casting couch."

Ianto exhaled slowly. "Hence my desire to have my own trousers back, but this is what I have available."

Owen pulled on his own black leather jacket. "Keep tryin', brat. I still dress much more in the cool than you." He looked to the door as Logan walked in. "The birds back yet?"

Logan shook his head. "Considering how many lost civilians they're looking for, I'm not expecting them until tonight, frankly. They've got to get them all to the abbey and explain things to them, too, after all." He held out two swords. "I brought these for you. Even if you suck with them, it's best not to go around completely defenseless."

Ianto stepped over, taking the side-sword without hesitation. He stepped back, sliding his finger down the ricasso, then assumed a fencing pose effortlessly and performed a classic cut-and-thrust. "Decent balance, and about the length I'm used to. Do you mind if I have this one, Owen?"

Owen scowled, taking the short sword and buckling it around his waist. "Go ahead. Not like I'd want a fairy sword like that, anyhow."

Logan chuckled. "Didn't know you had any training, kid. Not bad."

Ianto smiled. "I was captain of the fencing squad at school."

"And nobody guessed that you're gay?" Owen pushed past Logan to exit the room. "So what is it we're up to today?"

Logan followed him. "We're going looking for the key. Margali claims she has one, but she can't remember where she put it, so we get to rummage through her attic."

Ianto caught up to them, sliding the side-sword into the beaded sash he had tied around his waist. It still made his skin crawl as a fashion statement, but it served a practical purpose at least. "Owen should be able to find it quickly enough. He's got a gift with artifacts. So long as you don't mind the occasional vaporization when he tries to actually use one."

"I couldn't help that," sneered the doctor."You seem to be a natural attractor for alien surgical tools."

"I always thought you were trying to get back at me for shooting you."

"You guys must have great office parties." Logan opened an arched wooden door, stairs vanishing upwards into darkness beyond. "Keep a hand on the wall when you follow me and don't fall too far behind." He started up the narrow winding passage, the Torchwood pair right behind him. After the first turn, the stairs fell into complete darkness that even he had to strain to see through. He took another step up and met a flash of light that made him snap his eyes shut to let them adjust. He opened them again, seeing a sconce on the wall next to Owen that had lit itself. "Huh. Automatic lights, that's convenient."

"Much better for us, at least," Owen sniffed, starting to follow Logan again, the sconces lighting every twelfth riser as they passed.

A clatter behind made both of them turn around. Ianto looked up sheepishly. "Dropped my sword. I'll catch up." He turned back to fetch it as it slid down the stairs and soon found himself in darkness again. He swallowed, feeling for the blade and picking it up, then fastening it more securely with the sash. "Owen?"

"Up here, Ianto!"

Ianto followed the voice, his hand on the outer wall of the staircase as he made his way up, trying not to trip over the edges of the steps. "What happened to the lights?" he asked as he reached them again. "They're fine here, but they go out behind us."

Logan raised a brow, looking back at the shadowed curve below. "That's odd. I'd be a little more worried going downstairs in the dark than up. Stay here, you two. I'll go see if there's a switch or mechanism." He started up again.

Ianto gave Owen a slight smile as he leaned back against the cool inner wall stones. "I wish Jack were here. He'd love this sort of place."

"He can have it." Owen zipped up his jacket to the collar. "Bloody drafts, most likely full of vermin and bats, too. I wouldn't be surprised if you got bitten and came down with something dreadful and medieval while we're poking about up here, and I'll have to amputate something to save your life."

"You can be such an uplifting presence." Ianto started as he heard a yell from above. "Logan? Are you okay?"

"I stubbed my toe! It's pitch black up here!"

Owen rolled his eyes. "Watch your footing, tea-boy." He started up after the mutant.

"I think I should stay here and make sure this light stays lit at least." Ianto fixed his eyes on the sconce.

"You do that, then." Owen glanced to the side as another sconce lit as he passed, then looked to Logan, who was five steps up, rubbing his foot and staring at him. "What?"

"Why'd the light come on when you came up?" asked Logan.

"Owen! The light went out!" came Ianto's voice from below.

"What are you, afraid of the dark?!" Owen sighed. "You okay while I go fetch him?"

"Yeah, fine, already healed." Logan set his foot down. "Go back and get him. I want to see something."

Owen turned and made his way back to Ianto, the young admin's features suddenly illuminated by the light of the sconce in front of him as Owen approached. "Wait, it's back."

"Obviously," said Owen drily. "Should we fetch you a teddy bear so we can continue?"

"Huh. Owen, come back up here and bring him with you," called Logan.

"I'm counting this as my keep-fit for the week," muttered Owen, grabbing Ianto's sleeve to pull him along. "What is it now?"

Logan raised a brow as the darkness that had descended on his part of the stairs was once again awash in light. "So they're reacting to you."

"What are?" asked Owen, crossing his arms wearily.

"The lights." Logan gestured to the lit sconce. "Considering they're in Margali's place, they're probably activated by the presence of a mage."

"A mage?" Owen snorted. "Yeah, give me a little stick and call me Harry Potter. I didn't go to medical school because I believe in magic, mate."

"I'd say you act more like Snape," said Ianto, then added quickly, "Not that I read the books or anything. It came on telly once when Jack and I'd fallen asleep on the couch."

"Wouldn't put it past you to put on costumes and show up at bookstores when they put out a new one, Ianto." Owen pushed past Logan, pursing his lips. "You're both gone nutters. No such thing as magic. Now let's get out of these stairs before junior wets his tights."

* * *

"Oh my God! I'm _doing_ it!" Martha laughed, looking down at Stark, who grinned up at her. "The thrust on this is so amazing. Perfect power, but so smooth it's a dream getting it up."

"You really do have the best way with pillow talk," remarked the engineering genius. "Now let's see if you can land. Bring down the boot thrust levels gradually, keeping the stabilizing thrusters at a steady level until you're about ten centimeters off the floor, then cut out and just drop down."

Martha followed his instructions, her feet hitting the floor with a solid but controlled thump, knee shocks engaging automatically to keep the impact from jarring her balance. "I can see how this could really become an obsession." She walked over to him, smiling seductively. "Flying is as much a turn-on as time travel."

Stark slid his arms around the slender waist of her suit, tilting his head to kiss her through the silver helmet. "I'd say better than sex, but with you, it's a pretty even race. So have you been thinking of a name for your suit?"

Martha undid a gauntlet to run her fingers through Stark's unruly waves of hair. "What do you think of Metallique? Too disco?"

"No," said Stark, nodding his head. "You make it work, though." He kissed her again, more slowly this time. "Now how about we take a break and you can recharge my batteries?"

* * *

:**Please let me know what you think. Reviews refuel my creative juices and make it much easier to write! And if you haven't read it already, I've put up a new story in _Archives of the Time Agency_ that I'd love to hear some opinions on. _The Longest Leap_ attempts to deal with Jack's canon reference to his pregnancy with a Quantum Leap crossover and a surprise twist. Ta!**:


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

* * *

"Voila! I knew it was up here!" Margali turned from the stack she had been investigating in the attic, blowing a cloud of dust off of a small book bound in burgandy leather.

"The key is a book?" Owen took another item from Ianto, this one a curled ram's horn with a gilt edge. "Like a dog whistle for dragons." He tossed it aside casually.

"Non, mon cher, you silly boy." Margali opened the clasp of the book, leafing through it. "It is a catalog of Captain Britain objects. Now, did your Captain Britain... what was his name?"

"Captain Union Jack, ma'am," answered Ianto, offering Owen a green glass egg.

"Air freshener. This is pointless. We've been looking for hours." Owen tossed the egg aside.

"Captain Union Jack, yes," continued Margali. "Did he come back with a little something?"

"He's got a ring," Owen replied. "Gold, with three gems. Ruby, sapphire, and diamond. Probably fake. Shaped like a shield."

"Oooooh." Margali flipped through the pages eagerly. "That sounds like the Ring of Ambition. He must be trés confident."

"More like brash, cocky, and arrogant," countered Owen. "He's a complete prat." He took the crystal bowl Ianto handed over next. "Smokeless ashtray. We'd have more luck on Cash in the Attic, to be honest, mate. Can't you find things that are actually bloody keys to anything?"

"Sorry, Owen, I'm doing my best," the Welshman apologized.

"I found it! The Ring of Ambition grants dark power based on the confidence of the wearer. Levitation, revelation, and dark magic charge." Margali looked to the other page. "The complimenting object is the Timepiece of Sacrifice."

Logan closed the chest he had rummaged through and walked over, slapping the dust from his hands. "What's it say about that one?"

"Nothing."

"What do you mean, nothing?" Logan looked over her shoulder. "Isn't that a catalog?"

Margali shrugged. "Nobody in Avalon has ever seen the timepiece, mon cher. See? There is no picture, there is no description, there is nothing but the name. Merlyn must have lost it long ago."

"Bilis Manger." Ianto looked to Owen. "Jack said he runs a clock repair shop in Cardiff and he's keen on magic. Has things never seen in Torchwood."

Owen nodded. "And he's loaded on timepieces. One of 'em has to be the one we're lookin' for."

"Then keep looking for that key," growled Logan. "We've got to get back to Cardiff."

Ianto offered Owen a sewing spindle. Owen held it for a moment, his eyebrow raising. "Hold on. I think he's found it."

Margali set the book down, clapping her hands with a smile as she glided over. "Ah, oui, that is it! Now I remember what it looked like!" She put her hands to Ianto's cheeks and kissed him on either side of the face, then gazed at him proudly. "I knew you could find it, my darling boy!"

Owen looked up and shook his head. "Why the hell do I bother when the credit always goes to someone whose biggest talent is making coffee?"

"There is but one problem now." Margali took the spindle, looking it over carefully.

"What kind of problem?" Logan crossed his arms.

"We have the key, but we need the blessing of Roma," explained Margali.

"Well, let's go get it." Logan started for the stairs, then stopped, motioning Owen to go ahead of him.

"It is not so easy, mon cher," purred Margali. "She is in the abbey, not so far from us, but she is poisoned. Surely it was Melehan. Now she lies at the door between this world and the underworld." She waved her hand dismissively. "No bother, we shall go and see her nonetheless, oui?"

* * *

"You don't have to come here, you know," said Jack, his hand on the key in the lock. "I'm not even sure you should be. There's a full moon tonight, we're going to be facing an enemy we know very little about, and I'm not sure you're ready."

"Why don't you say what you really mean, Jack?" John leaned on the wall next to the door. "You don't want me in your tea-boy's flat. But same as you said to me applies to you. I know why I'm here. I want to see what Kyhl's place was like when he was an innocent naive little Welshie. Why're you here when the world's about to end?"

"Feeding Truffle." Jack opened the door and walked into the small but immaculate maisonette, decorated in bright solids that always managed to remind him that Ianto wasn't easy to figure out. Above a red couch littered with fuzzy pink, purple, and yellow throw pillows was a large Welsh flag. A rugby ball, scuffed with use, sat at an artful angle next to a vase of tastefully arranged tea roses on the credenza. He made his way into the kitchen and opened a cupboard to get out a box of cereal, then bent down to retrieve a basket of berries from the refrigerator.

"Little late for breakfast, ain't it? It's almost noon." John strolled over to the bookcase, leaning down to study the titles. "You aware your boyfriend has all seven Harry Potter books in hardcover?"

"Signed first editions." Jack opened a can of cat food and mixed a spoonful into the cereal and berries. "He keeps them for the collectible value."

"Keep tellin' yourself that, Jack." He stood up and turned around, watching his boss's culinary venture. "What the hell are you making? Eye candy's cat eats fruit?"

"Truffle's not a cat." Jack set the bowl down on the floor and made a kissing noise, tapping the bowl with the spoon. What had at first seemed to be the very smallest of the pillows on the couch unrolled into a fat hedgehog, plopping onto the floor and waddling her way between John's feet to get to her bowl. Jack crouched down and scratched her back affectionately. "This is Truffle."

John raised a brow. "If I'd known half of this about him when I was a time agent, I could've retired on the blackmail. So this is what you do mere hours before we have to save the planet?"

Jack frowned up at him. "I don't have Ianto to take care of, okay? I'm damn sure not going to let his hedgehog get sick."

* * *

Gwen looked around the crowded abbey with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. "Every last one of them alive and well, Warren. So far we're making a better track record than the Torchwood average."

Warren nodded in distraction, watching the monks tend to the Cardiff refugees, bringing them food and wine while Curdies in the forms of owls, foxes, and badgers ate bits of meat from bowls on the floor. "The two of us and a bunch of shapeshifting forest animals make a good search and rescue team. What is that guy doing, do you know?"

Gwen followed his eyes to a man in a crimson cloak with a tall and gnarled staff in his hand, topped with a blood-colored crystal the size of her fist. He stopped in front of each group, lowering the staff and waving it slowly back and forth, then moved to the next. "Some form of blessing, perhaps?"

"I hope that's all it is." Warren moved to the side to get an unhindered view as the man started up the other side of the hall. "Doesn't look like he's doing any harm at least."

Gwen nibbled on a slice of currant bread. "Why would he be doing harm? He's a monk or a priest or something, isn't he?" She stepped over alongside Warren, however, watching the curious progress. The crystal seemed to sparkle with tiny flashes of light as it passed each person. She couldn't help sensing that the man was becoming slightly frustrated as he neared the last group.

"We'll find out," reassured Warren. "He's coming this way."

The monk indeed stepped up to them, lowering the staff. It glimmered more strongly as it passed in front of Gwen, then even more brightly as it was pointed at Warren. Even so, the man sighed audibly, raising the staff to his shoulder and pushing back his hood to expose a shaved head and dark skin with flashing black eyes. "Not one of you is the one we seek."

"Seek?" asked Gwen. "What do you mean?"

The monk shook his head. "Roma is dying. There is but one who can save her, one who is from your world. We opened the shadow between worlds and drew in everyone that had the mark upon them, but the one is not here among you."

Warren furrowed his brow. "Shadow between worlds.. the Rift? And the mark is the X-factor gene. Gwen, they're the ones who caused the Rift event."

"What?!" Gwen frowned. "Do you realize how much danger you put our world in? We need to get home before the full moon."

"No, Gwen, wait." Warren put his hand on her shoulder. "He said Roma is dying. She's almost like a goddess to them. I think I can understand why they'd do it if that's what's happening. Besides, she's the one who guides the Captain Britain Corps for Merlyn."

"It is all for nought if the one is not here," said the monk, his voice cracking. "Roma will die with the full moon."

Gwen put her hand on Warren's arm. "What about Logan? He's the most powerful one of us that came through, right?"

"By far," agreed the winged mutant. "We could send Saoren to find him and tell him to get here."

Gwen turned as a wind whipped up only a few feet behind them, blowing her hair across her face. She pushed it away as the air grew still again, grinning as she saw Logan, Owen, Margali, and Ianto. "No need, they're here."

Margali graced her way forward to greet the pair, kissing them each on the cheek. "So good to see you again. Good news we bring, we are going home. Well, if Roma will..." She stopped as the monk stepped forward to pass his staff over the other three new arrivals. "A scrying, Halivos? Whatever for?"

"For the one," replied the monk, his eyes widening as the crystal sprang to life, emitting a bright beam of light that shone directly at Ianto's chest. The monk knelt, much to the young Welshman's confusion. "You are the salvation of Avalon."

"Ianto?" Gwen looked at her co-worker. "What have you been up to?"

Ianto shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea."

* * *

:**Reviews fuel my creative juices! Please share your opinions. And massive hugs and gratitude to those who have been so good as to leave reviews already. You guys are the best! Ta!**:


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

* * *

"Jack!" Tosh studied the screen, narrowing in on the Rift event. "There's been another event spike!"

"Where?" Jack took the stairs from his office three at a time, joining their data specialist and studying the screens. "It's still daylight, so it shouldn't be Melehan. It could be our team getting back."

Tosh nodded, breaking into a smile. "It's below us, in the Vaults, somewhere between level six and level nine."

John glanced to the side, his feet kicked up on Owen's desk. "Anyone remember to feed the pterodactyl?"

Jack looked to John, the color draining from his face. Myfanwy's shrieks could be heard echoing up through the core. John got to his feet, giving Jack a nod. The pair took off for the Vaults at a run.

* * *

"He bears the mark, but more importantly, he is of the line of Peredor," explained the monk known as Halivos as he led Margali, the mutants, and the three Torchwood members through the catacombs.

"Line of who?" Gwen looked to Ianto for translation.

"Um, Sir Percival is the more common English name. Arthur's knight who managed to complete the quest for the Holy Grail." Gwen hadn't seen him look this overwhelmed since he'd almost wound up as dinner for rural cannibals on the first field mission they'd been on together. "I always thought Dad was just saying that to make me feel we were special."

"I thought he died a virgin," said Owen, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Only in later versions of the legend," Ianto explained. "The oldest stories have him becoming a king in his own right and having a son with his sweetheart."

"Ianto, you're royalty," Gwen gave him a little grin and a curtsey, breaking the tension of the moment so that Ianto almost laughed, stiffling it only out of respect for the solemn monk that was their guide.

"Don't expect me to go kissin' your royal arse, brat." Owen smiled, though.

Their somber mood returned as the passage opened into a large, rounded apse, the center of it dominated by a dais on which lay a litter draped in crimson velvet. Halivos turned to bow to Ianto, motioning him forward to the litter. The Welshman swallowed, making his way to the platform and kneeling next to it to lift the edge of the velvet. Black hair cascaded over the edge of the litter, framing a face of unworldly beauty so pale one would think it was chiseled from marble if it wasn't for the rosy tinge to her full lips. Ianto sucked in his breath, transfixed by the fae woman laying unconscious in front of him, and laid his hand reverently on her cheek. "She's cold."

Owen pushed past the monk, crouching next to Ianto to check Roma's pulse. "Looks pharmaceutical. If I had my medikit, I could whip up an antidote right off. I'd just need to find the compound."

"Don't be silly, mon cher." Margali looked away from the lifeless face. "This poison is done by magic."

"Then why don't you try to heal her, Margali?" asked Logan.

"Because, I don't know, it was cast not by me but by Melehan?" Margali rolled her eyes. "Such spells as these are not something you can just undo. They are tied to the frequency of the caster. It is out of my hands." She turned away, as if the admission was more than she could take.

"What do I need to do?" Ianto tore his gaze from Roma's face to look to the monk. "How do I help her?"

* * *

"Da's it, Bleu, you got it on de run!" The voice Jack heard was unfamiliar, masculine, the accent uniquely French, but not from Europe. It wasn't quite Canadian, either. His mind was half-occupied with trying to place it as he broke out of the stairwell into the Vault's sixth level, the cells this far down almost always empty. He saw a flash of indigo, then with a sound like a muffled and distant explosion there was nothing but foul-smelling smoke dissipating in the spot that Myfanwy soared through, snapping uselessly and emitting a cry of frustration.

"Here, chicky chicky chicky," came the male voice again. "Ah do be really hankerin' for some Loosiana fried chicken right now!" Cajun. He spun around with his pistol raised and found himself facing the back of the speaker, a tall man with long brown hair, his figure masked by a long brown leather coat.

"Put your hands up and get down on your knees or I'll tell her to take your head off," he ordered, stepping forward. John drew his guns as well, keeping an eye out for the pterodactyl, which could be heard snapping angrily around the other side of the circular passage.

The man slowly raised his hands, placing them behind his head in a demonstration of familiarity with arrest procedures, then lowered himself down, one knee at a time. "You got yo'sel' a hellva guard dog dere, mon ami."

Jack kept his revolver aimed at the man's head as he circled around him. "Yeah, and she's hungry, too. You picked the wrong place to show up and definitely the wrong time." He stopped as he saw the man's face, almost losing his grip on the pistol. The guy was gorgeous on a level that impressed even him. His eyes were kept veiled by aviator-style sunglasses, soft lips curved into a teasing half-smile. "Who are you?"

"Remy," he answered. "Remy LeBeau."

"What are you doing here, Remy LeBeau?" Jack couldn't help wanting to hear that voice again. It was oddly addictive, that accent.

The smile widened. "Ah were you, Ah'd duck." Jack felt something strike him in the small of the back, sending him sprawling at Remy's knees, the revolver deftly plucked from his hand as his chin crashed into the flagstone floor. He heard John yell, firing with both pistols, and smelled the odor of rotting eggs again before it was blown away by the rush of wind under Myfanwy's wings as she chased her prey. Before he could move Remy was straddling his back, holding his wrist twisted behind him almost between his shoulder blades, forcing compliance as the revolver was placed to his temple. "Okay, Redcoat!" he called to John. "Put down dem shooters an' call off dat big bird or Ah put a bullet in dis pretty boy's ear, got it?"

"Go ahead," challenged John, "I've been trying to kill him for years." He aimed both guns at Remy. "How about you shoot him, I shoot you, and we let Myfanwy eat that stink-bomb."

"Oh, he not gonna like it you call him dat," replied the Cajun. "You be a good boy an' we can talk."

"John, shoot him," muttered Jack. "Normally I'd find this very erotic, but we don't have time to play today!"

Remy cocked the revolver. "Shh, mon ami. Now you jus' listen to me, Limey boy. You don' wanna do somefin' stoopid, see? We got oursel's a standoff, seems."

"Maybe you do." John stepped closer. Jack wondered why he wasn't attacking. He knew Jack would come back even if Remy killed him, so there was no reason to fall for the bluff other than the soothing tone and handsome features of the intruder. "Me, I've got an ace up my sleeve."

"John, damn it, he's hypnotizing you!" Jack squirmed, unable to get any useful movement while pinned down under the other man.

"Funny you mention aces," Remy said smoothly. "How you like Ah show you a little card trick, hmm?" Jack felt a quick charge of energy next to his head, then the revolver was moved away in a flash, allowing him to lift his head in time to see a playing card fly through the air, trailing a charge of purple aura as it shot at John.

John leapt into the air as the card flew under him, bursting into a fireball. He hovered as he smirked down at the Cajun. "That was slick, but you missed, mate."

"Hunh." The revolver pressed against Jack's head again. "Now who knew you was a flyboy? Ah'm warnin' you, Ah won' miss his head if you make me shoot."

"I already told you, go ahead and shoot him." John brought both pistols to bear on Remy again. "I don't think you have the balls, but I do." Jack saw his fingers closing in on the triggers as if in slow motion, then saw an indigo figure materialize in front of the other time agent, spinning in midair so quickly it was hard to make out any details as it delivered a hard kick with both feet into his chest. John was thrown head over heels backwards into a cell, the door slamming shut. The blue figure dropped to the ground, looking back to Remy with glowing yellow eyes, a long blue tail whipping around its ankles like a cat's.

"Atta boy, Bleu," said the Cajun. "Where dat chicken get to?"

"I put him into a cell on ze other side," came the reply in a German accent. "You are not going to kill zat man, right?"

"Ah wouldn' want to mess up mah pants." Remy got off of Jack, slowly letting go of his wrist. "Besides, he's a good boy, no?"

"No," Jack countered, pushing himself up to his knees, glancing at the cell where John was and reaching for his wrist strap, only to feel bare skin. "I want some answers. What do you want with us? Are you working for Melehan?"

"Melehan?" Remy burst into laughter. "Ah worked for some snakes in mah life, mon ami, but dat one's too much for e'en me to play nice wit'. We're tryna stop dat rat, we are."

* * *

"No," said Gwen, firmly shaking her head. "You can't ask Ianto to do that. You said this poison was going to kill her by moonrise!"

"He is the only one who can save her other than Melehan, and he will not help her," pleaded the monk. "I know it is much to ask, but he is our only hope."

"We'll take her back to Torchwood and find a proper cure," insisted Owen. "Don't listen to him, Ianto, you hear me?"

"There has to be some other way." Warren chewed his lip. "You're asking a lot from him when he's not even from Avalon."

"Could you all please just shut up?" Ianto took a deep breath. "It's my decision, isn't it?" He looked down at the beautiful face of Merlyn's daughter again. "I want to help her." He turned back to the others, silencing them with a determined look. "Just do me a favor and get me back to Jack. I don't want to die without seeing him again."

Logan put his hand on the Welshman's shoulder. "You do what you gotta do, kid. I'll get you to Jack in time, you got my word."

* * *

:Make my day and leave a review? Your opinion is important to me!:


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

* * *

John got to his feet in the cell, rubbing his chest as Remy handed the revolver back to Jack. "Okay, Jack, let me out now."

Jack holstered his pistol. "Can't. Someone stole my wrist strap and I don't carry a slide card." He shrugged. "Not like I need one when my strap is interfaced to the Hub."

"Remy!" The blue mutant looked at his companion reproachfully. "Did you steal from him?"

Remy held up the strap. "Eh, it looked useful, y'know?" He smirked as Jack grabbed it back, using it to release John from his imprisonment.

"Vhat else did you take from ze man?"

Remy sighed, offering out his other hand. "Ah gotta keep up mah skills, Bleu. Can' blame me, no?"

Jack scooped up his pen, GPS, cell phone, wrist watch, and the stopwatch. "Very cute. Remind me to stay at least an arm's length away from you."

"Better stay further than that from Bleu," remarked John, eyeing the tailed mutant.

The mutant arched a brow. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is not Bleu, it is Kurt Wagner. I am a member of Excalibur."

"Captain Britain's team?" John brightened. "I'm a Captain Britain."

"Hunh, you don' say," commented Remy. "You ain' nearly so tall as Brian."

"Why does everyone keep bringing that up?" John pouted.

Jack held up a hand. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness, this is Captain John Hart. We're Torchwood. Now you said you're trying to stop Melehan. How?"

"Ze false Captain Britain stole ze Sword of Might," explained Kurt. "Now he has both ze light and dark objects so he has ze power he vishes, but he must come to ze source if he is to vield it. Ze source being ze Rift zat your city is built on."

"What light and dark objects?" John furrowed his brow. "Merlyn never mentioned anything about this."

"He prolly weren' expectin' it, Ah'm supposin'." Remy pulled a deck of cards from his pocket, shuffling them in one hand. "Didn' Roma teach you nuthin' 'bout this?"

"He hasn't met Roma, Remy," stressed Kurt. "Ve cannot reach her, remember?" He looked over to John. "Vhen you became Captain Britain, you vere given a choice of items, one light, one dark, to be your symbol of power."

John shook his head. "Not me. He just gave me the ring."

"How strange. Vhatever, ze important part is zat putting both a light object and ze corresponding dark object together can grant ze power to reshape ze cosmos. Zis is ze reason vhy Melehan vas attacking Captain Britains."

"So when he gets here, he's not just going to be the guy tough enough to beat up experienced Captain Britains, he's going to be all-powerful?" Jack rubbed the side of his face. "I really wish we had Warren and Logan and the rest of the team here."

"Logan is missing?" Kurt's shoulders slumped. "Vat vill ve do vizhout him?"

"Hey, we still have Captain Union Jack, mates." John put his hands on his hips.

Jack sighed. "I really hate that name. We have some weaponry on our side as well, and Tony Stark. And Myfanwy. And you two seem pretty strong."

Remy flashed a toothy grin as he fanned the deck in his fingers nimbly. "We got us our good points."

Jack looked over to John. "That puts us at better than a half dozen against an all-powerful godling. I'd say it's good odds."

"Jack?" Tosh's voice broke in over the comm. "I'm reading some very strange weather patterns over city centre. I think our visitor may be coming."

* * *

Ianto knelt next to the guardian of the omniverse, completely in awe of her presence and wondering that any of them could even question that he would trade his life for hers. Jack had seemed so sure they would be together forever, and the pang of guilt that he would prove him wrong was the only thing that caused him the slightest hesitation. Still, he would do this for Jack as much as for Merlyn's daughter. Perhaps this was the reason why Jack had become what he was in the first place, the reason why he had passed on part of the gift to him. He slid his hand under her slender neck and lifted her head, cradling it in his arm as he bent over her, slowly pressing his lips to hers.

As their flesh met in the intimate touch he could feel her soul sinking into the darkness that he himself had once before tasted. Only a thin thread held her to this cold body. He felt his soul reach out to hers, felt her begin to grow strong again, the light energy of life flowing out of his body into hers, replaced by the dark energy of the poison spell. As her lips warmed, his own became cold, numb. His arms felt heavy, as if they were made of stone, unable to hold their own weight, much less hers. As he started to slip he felt her arms around him, supporting him as he was lowered to the floor.

The darkness rushed up to surround him like an ocean on a moonless night. Only one thing was left to him, an invading and overwhelming sense of fear. Soon he would fall forever into the dark and he would be alone with the thing that haunted the nothingness for eternity.

* * *

Jack stepped out of the SUV and walked out into the middle of St. Mary Street, looking up at the turbulent sky. Clouds boiled across the purple expanse, covering the silver where the full moon should be. Wind whipped around him, billowing his great coat. The normal crowds were nowhere to be seen, driven inside by the unseasonably cold wind that drove through all layers of clothing, sending a shiver down the immortal captain's spine.

"Whoohee!" Remy's teeth chattered as he, John, and Kurt joined Jack. "She be blowin' col' enou' to freeze de balls off a brass monkey."

Kurt crouched down. "Just like ze night Brian vas defeated."

"Don't be encouraging or anything." John pulled his jacket closed. "Lucky Tosh, gettin' to stay in the SUV. Where's Tony and Martha?"

He was answered by two metallic thuds behind them. Jack looked back to see Stark's now-familiar red and gold suit, the beam in his chest piercing the darkness comfortingly as he walked forward to join them. Next to him came Martha, armored inside her own suit, gleaming gold with an iridescent finish, her face hidden behind a gold mask. Jack cracked a smile more confident than he felt and drew his revolver, checking the cylinder to make sure he was loaded. "Glad you could join us for the party."

"I already saved the world once and nobody remembers," replied Martha, her voice eerily mechanical. "This time at least they'll remember the suit." She gave a wave to the CCTV camera hanging from the street light.

Lightning cracked the sky open, striking the center of the street in a blinding flash. For what seemed an eternity Jack could only see a glaring purple streak with green edges burned into his retinas, then slowly he recognized the shape of a man where the bolt had struck. Somehow Jack had expected a wizard out of a painting by a dungeons and dragons artist, or perhaps a warped monster or giant of imposing countenance. It took a moment for him to register what appeared to be a conservative businessman, down to the bowler hat and umbrella. His suit was as finely tailored as the best London could offer. Under the man's arm was a golden sword, while around his neck was a silver amulet set with a large crystal. His face was completely hidden by shadow.

"Dat be him," said Remy quietly, fanning his cards in one hand while with his other he drew from his coat a foot long silver rod. With a snap he extended it into a six-foot long bô. "Melehan."

John tilted his head. "Is he here to rumble or open a bank?"

* * *

"Ianto!" Owen dropped to his knees, checking the younger man's pulse, his face pale. "Don't you dare die on me, Ianto Jones."

Roma looked down at the young Welshman with ice blue eyes, smoothing his hair with one slender hand. "Thank you, little one."

Gwen bit her lip. "Is he alive, Owen?"

"Just barely." Owen's voice was choked with emotion. "We've got to get him back home. I'm not letting him die."

"That's probably out of your hands, mon cher," said Margali quietly.

Owen lifted Ianto's head to his chest, cradling him protectively. "I wouldn't be here without him. He saved my life, so if he dies, I've got nothing to show for it!"

Roma stood, looking up at the domed ceiling above as it became transparent, stars visible in the darkening sky. "The moon is almost here. When the moon is full here as it is on the other side of the Rift, Melehan will reshape the cosmos in his image." She looked back to the others. "You must stop it from happening. You must prevent him from destroying reality."

"Will that save Ianto?" Owen looked up, his eyes narrowed defiantly. "He's dying, isn't he."

Roma looked down at the young Welshman sadly, his skin already becoming as white as hers had been. "I cannot break Melehan's spell. His only chance is for you to use Melehan himself. Now you must go. Find the timepiece. You have my blessing." She raised her hand, white light beaming from it to surround them, thinning the barrier between dimensions. "Tell your Captain Britain he will find the answer in days of future past."

Gwen hesitated to follow as Margali and Warren started into the light, looking back at Owen. The doctor was showing more emotion than she was used to, especially toward the young admin who was the most often targeted by his barbs since Tosh had stopped being an easy mark. "Owen.. Jack and John and Tosh need us, too. She said Melehan's Ianto's only chance."

Logan crouched down in front of Owen, gently lifting Ianto from him. "C'mon, kid. She's right. And I made a promise I intend to keep."

Owen got to his feet heavily, not taking his eyes from Ianto's pallid face. "If he dies, I'm killin' Melehan myself."

* * *

:Okay, wanted to get this one written and posted as quickly as possible because, I'm warning you now, I am very slow at writing battle scenes. I will post as soon as possible, and as always, reviews make the writing process faster and easier!:


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

* * *

Melehan stepped forward, light crossing the lower half of his face for the first time, revealing a cold smile that gave Jack a sense of déja vu. "Why, hello there, Jack. Fancy seeing you here."

"Do we know each other?" Jack smirked. "Because I can't say you made an impression."

"Oh, I know you, Face of Boe." The voice grated on Jack's mind like nails dragged across his flesh. "And I promise you a night to remember. Who are your little friends? Look, a rather roguish Captain Britain. And some of them are a long way from home."

"Why don' you come shake hands like a gentleman, mon ami?" called Remy. "Or are you gonna hide b'hin' a dark clone ag'in?"

Melehan chuckled. "Aha, you're from Earth-616. Hope you like it here, because you're not getting back home, I'm afraid. You see, my Captain Britain there is draining the energy from Widget as we speak, so soon you'll be stuck on this world."

Kurt and Remy exchanged glances, Stark stepping forward. "We'll stop you here, then."

"And ve vill save Vidget, too!" Kurt's tail lashed angrily. "You cannot stop _me_ from going home, and I vill stop you zhere. You vill pay for harming her!"

"So much hostility," commented Melehan drily. "It's okay, stay here and you can be witness to the rebirth of the omniverse as it should be, when Gallifrey shall rise again, properly done this time."

"Gallifrey?" Jack looked over to Martha, her face unseen behind her mask, but he was sure she was as shocked as him. "How can you bring back Gallifrey? Are you saying you're a Time Lord?"

Melehan laughed, tossing his head back. "You don't know who I am? I am Melehan, son of Mordred, the greatest Time Lord of all! Six puny humans will only be a minor delay to my plans." He lowered his head again, the light crossing over his eyes.

Jack heard Martha's gasp over the comm. "Jack, does he look like..?"

Jack clenched his teeth, the recognition of the smile falling into place. "Saxon."

"There, see? You're not so ignorant after all." Melehan tipped his hat mockingly. "Father gave me the privilege of torturing you and executing you so many times over the year that never was. I rather miss it. I think in my new cosmos I shall keep you as a pet again."

"Dat don' soun' so fun, Jacques," commented Remy. "Ah say we shut dis dog's yap, you wit' me?"

Jack smiled, raising his revolver and firing at Melehan's face, emptying the cylinder. Melehan's umbrella was up and opened in a flash, the bullets bouncing off harmlessly. "Shit," muttered Jack. "Okay, new plans, anyone?"

The team sprang into action, all five attacking at once. Stark and Martha took the right side, bringing up their gauntlets and firing their repulser beams, while Remy and Kurt sprang quickly to the left, the Cajun flinging cards in a steady stream like violet rays while the blue mutant teleported rapidly in and out to deliver a flurry of kicks and punches. John took the middle, emptying both his pistols, then tossing them aside and drawing his katana. With a yell he leapt into the air, sailing at Melehan, his sword catching the edge of the umbrella and flipping it upward as he flew over him.

Jack looked up from reloading, laughing as he saw his former tormentor lying in a smoking heap on the street. "Well, that was a bit of a disappointment, kids. Should we go for beers?"

Tosh stepped out of the SUV. "Jack, I'm reading a massive Rift buildup."

Jack looked over to her. "Good, I'm still jacked up. Could use a good fight to work off some of this energy." He turned, raising the pistol as the event opened up behind them. "Whatever comes out? I get the big one!"

Warren stepped out of the Rift, blinking and immediately putting his hands up. "Don't shoot, Jack! It's me!"

"Warren?" Jack grinned as he was followed by Gwen. "Gwen, I expect I don't have to tell you this, but Rhys has been calling non-stop. Call him and tell him you're okay?" He raised a brow as Margali stepped out, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Well, introduce me to your friend."

Gwen was already on her cell phone, holding up her hand to quiet Jack as she put in a call to her worried husband. Margali slid up to Jack, offering her hand out, palm down. "Bonsoir. I am Margali, and you are _very_ handsome. Are you married?"

"Sort of taken, but we're pretty open-minded." Jack looked back at the event. "Isn't he with you?"

"Mutter!" Kurt materialized next to the sorceress, the two embracing and quickly engaging in a conversation in a mixture of French and German.

"Feels like back in World War Two," commented Jack. He stepped past them. "Warren? Where's Owen and Ianto and Logan?"

Warren gave him a shake of his head. "Jack.. Don't give up hope, okay?"

"What are you talking about?" Jack looked back to the event as it opened up again. Owen stepped out, his face grim. Logan was right behind him, carrying in his arms something Jack couldn't recognize. "Owen! Where's Ianto?!" He followed Owen's look to Logan's arms, the color draining from his face as the mutant carefully lowered the Welshman to the ground. Jack pushed Owen aside, dropping to his knees and stroking his lover's cold cheek. "Is he..?"

"No," said Owen flatly, "but he will be if we can't get Melehan to save him."

"What?" Jack looked up, horrified. "But we just killed Melehan!"

"Um, Jacques, Ah wouldn' go dat far." Remy backed up as the heap that had been Melehan started to move, twitching to life and standing up again, a cackle as mad as the Master's echoing off the walls of the pubs and shops. "Ah figgered dis'd be a long night somehow."

"What do we have here, more playmates?" Melehan shook the dust off his jacket, then picked at his sleeve. "And Margali, too. What a stunning outfit that is. My offer for you to be my queen is still open."

Margali waved her hand dismissively. "You're no King of Otherworld yet, Melehan. Besides, I don't take kindly to anyone making trouble for my Kurt, oui? I think I shall stay here for now."

Logan flexed his muscles, a smirk crossing his face. "Looks like I didn't miss the fun after all. Let's try round two."

Tosh looked up from her handheld, her eyes wide. "Jack, that wasn't the big spike!"

Melehan looked behind him as the street exploded in flashes of Rift energy. The two hundred sixty-four Cardiff civilians with the X-factor stepped out as they were returned from Avalon. "Unbelievable, I thought there weren't that many mutants on this world."

John grinned, crossing his arms. "Looks like you're in trouble now, sonny boy."

"Am I?" Melehan batted his eyelashes innocently. "I don't particularly like being in trouble." He raised his hand, gathering dark energy.

"Everyone, come close to me!" Margali shouted, throwing up her hands, picking up a yellow glow. Torchwood's members and their friends quickly gathered at the side of the sorceress.

"I'd love to play with you all night, but I have other things to attend to." Melehan bared his teeth in a malicious grin. "Let me give you something to keep you occupied." He dropped his hand, a wave of dark washing out over the occupants of the street. Margali threw out her hands, creating a shield to break the wave around them.

"That," observed Stark, "did not look like a good thing. What'd he do?"

Gwen looked at the crowd of returned civilians, shaking her head as they lifted their heads, their eyes glowing as they fixed their attention on Torchwood and their companions. "Oh, it's not good. They're under his control now. Jack?!"

Jack didn't look up, squeezing Ianto's hand in his and kissing it, rocking back and forth on his knees as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Don't leave me, Ianto. Don't leave me here alone."

"Remember when I pointed out he's unreliable?" John pushed up the sleeves on his jacket. "This is more of a Captain Union Jack situation, so I'll give the orders." He looked at the crowd as they approached. "Everybody just kick someone's arse until nobody's left, got it?"

"Brilliant plan," muttered Stark, raising his gauntlets. "You ready, Marty?"

Margali stepped back, looking drained. "That took too much to fight. His dark power is almost at its peak. It must be moonrise in Avalon." She leaned on Kurt's shoulder. "Owen, mon cher, where did you say you could find the Timepiece of Sacrifice?"

"Bilis Manger's," the doctor replied.

"Go, find it quickly," Margali directed, waving her hand for emphasis. "You must find the light object if we are to stand against his power!"

Owen glanced over to Ianto, then to the SUV. "Gwen, Tosh, you're coming with me. We don't have much time."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

* * *

"Dis here's a situation where Ah coul' really use a soundtrack." Remy rolled his head, cracking his neck in anticipation.

Stark glanced over to him. "JARVIS, hook me into some appropriate mixes."

Remy grinned as the outside speakers of the nightclubs all turned on, broadcasting a playlist of KMFDM. "Well, t'ain' zydeco, but it'll do. Ah like dat suit." He spun with the beat, swinging his bô in an arc upward to slam into the face of a beefy man in coveralls. The man staggered back, sprouting a pair of bull's horns from his temples, then charged. Remy sidestepped him easily. "Olé! Check it, Ah'm da Cajun matador!"

"Don't get cocky, kid!" Logan closed his hands into fists, his claws flashing out as he took on a teenager with a bad case of acne and a mohawk. His claws went straight through as the mutant turned to liquid, then back to solid to swing ineffectually at his adamantium-reinforced jaw. "Yeah, good luck with that," Logan offered. "Anyone got a towel?"

Warren dodged a shower of sharp-edged scales thrown by a reptilian-skinned woman by taking flight. "I don't get it, Logan! Their powers are fully developed!"

"Ja, some of zem are really strong." Kurt slammed his tipped tail into a heavy-set man with bubbling skin, whipping it back as the man belched fire at him. Margali threw up her hand, shielding them from the blast.

"That's not exactly fair, is it?" John swung a fist at a fanged woman, sending her flying through the window of an eatery. He glanced sideways as the sounds of mayhem ensued with those who had taken refuge from the power storm inside. "Don't blame me for that."

Martha blasted a path through some of the lighter mutants with her repulsors. "Tony, Melehan's up to something!"

Stark backhanded a furred mutant, the man's neck making a sickening crack as his head snapped back. "Out of my way, muppet." He switched to scan mode, focusing on the end of the street where the mage had knelt down, driving the golden sword into the asphalt in front of him, and was now in the process of winding the amulet's chain around the hilt. "I'll take care of him." He grabbed another mutant as she lunged, soaring upward thirty meters before dropping her, his focus still on the mage as he arced downward to get behind the crowd of mutants.

Melehan looked up from his preparations, raising a brow as the gleaming metal armor dropped in front of him. "What is it?"

"Relieving you of stolen property," answered Stark, reaching for the sword.

"Aren't we suddenly Mr. Morality." Melehan smirked, grabbing Stark's wrist as he touched the hilt. "What a marvelous power source you make."

Stark's suit froze in place, bolts of dark energy dancing over the skin as the beam in his chest started to glow at full strength. "Energy drain detected," intoned JARVIS. "Power at eighty-seven percent and dropping."

* * *

Tosh jumped from the SUV, running with Gwen for the front door of Bilis Manger's clock repair shop. "I can disable the security system, but it might take about three minutes."

Owen pushed past the women, drawing his sword. He swung his arm backwards across his body, the hilt shattering the glass of the door, then ducked under the crossbar to get inside, using the blade of the sword to cut the power to the alarm. "Now you can turn it off from his office."

"Or.. that works, too." Tosh followed him in, moving for the back of the shop to get to the office.

"What do you want me to do, Owen?" Gwen straightened after ducking in behind them.

"Bring me every clock and watch in the place." Owen started on the left wall, running his hand over the antique clocks on display. "I'll know it when I touch it."

* * *

The battle engaging around him seemed muted and irrelevant to Jack as he held Ianto's cold fingers to his cheek. He had been here before, watching those he loved dying in front of him, cursing his inability to either join them or keep them with him. Ianto was supposed to become Kyhl, but as a Time Agent and later a companion of a Time Lord Jack knew time was fluid; the future itself could be altered irrevocably with a single second. Melehan would never save the life of anyone he had no use for and time was almost up for a last minute reprieve. Part of him was trying to believe that Ianto was now like him, unable to die, but the conviction faltered as he kissed his lifeless lips, feeling no spark connecting them as it had that first time he had kissed him.

He closed his eyes, his vision filled with recollections from Verdun and the Somme, Ardennes, and a hundred other battles he'd lived through, his ears filled with the cries of a thousand men he'd failed to save who had counted on him in those battles, many younger than Ianto, a few of them as physically familiar with him. He had just come to hope he wouldn't be alone again though, and now he was facing losing that hope and a man who meant more to him than he wanted to admit, a man who never flinched from the secrets he learned about Jack, who knew he could be a monster and accepted him anyway. Without Ianto, without Kyhl, what would be the point to his unlikely existence, who would remind him he could be a man, too?

He clung to the memories that threatened to die with his lover. Catching the Welshman dancing to his ipod in the info centre when he thought he was alone, seeing him whirl as he realized he wasn't and laughing at his blush. Trying to keep up as he rattled off rugby scores as if he expected Jack to be as enthusiastic about the sport as he was. Coming downstairs at his maisonette to find him making breakfast, dressed in nothing but Jack's great coat, giving a tantalizing glimpse of bare hip as it billowed with his turn from fridge to cooker. Fighting for control of the radio in the SUV as they drove to a mission, trying to impress on him how timeless Sinatra was while Ianto kept flipping it back to something called Mindless Self Indulgence and begging him to give the relentless pounding noise a chance, even though the only words Jack could make out in the song was the chorus of 'you stupid mother fucker'. Knowing just how playful he was feeling by whether or not he attempted to cover up his Welsh accent. Countless shared cups of coffee, Ianto leaning over his desk to sip from Jack's mug, the small action almost as intimate as sex somehow.

He opened his eyes with the sensation of cold steel piercing his chest, looking up to see a man in front of him, his glowing eyes turning away already as he pulled his arm back, the limb turned from flesh to a large metallic spike. A laugh of irony escaped him as he thought about how much it was like the antagonist in the second Terminator movie. Ianto loved the whole trilogy, mouthing along with the dialog when they watched it together until Jack had been forced to smother his mouth with a snog. Jack was more bothered by the fact that he couldn't remember what happened in the rest of the movie than by the stain of red that spread across his shirt as the spike was pulled out of him. He dropped forward, falling into the very familiar darkness that swallowed him with every death.

He waited for the intense pain of isolation to strike him, but instead he felt something catch him, hold him. He could still see nothing, but he knew who it was.

_Ianto, you're with me. I want to stay here now._

_No, Jack. You don't belong here and you know it. Death doesn't like you and you're needed up there._

_But so are you. I need you, Ianto. I can't lose anyone else. I can't lose you._

_Then don't. I'm not dead yet. I felt your hand holding mine. I felt your kiss. I heard you call to me. I don't want to die and leave you, either. You remember why you hired me?_

_You look damn good in pinstripes and I knew you wanted me, so I had to keep you around me long enough to get you out of that suit._

_You're so vain, you know that? I prefer to think you hired me because you realized I don't give up easily._

_I know you don't. You always wind up getting your way._

_So now is the time you don't give up, or I swear you'll regret it. I didn't do this so you could piss it away by letting Melehan win._

_What do you want me to do?_

_Do what you do best, Jack. I love you._

_I love you, too, Ianto._

He felt the darkness recede like an ocean spitting him up onto a beach, felt the heaviness of his limbs and the cold throb of healing tissues as the hole in his chest closed up. He opened his eyes and looked down at Ianto's face, kissing him once more before pushing himself up to his knees. His hand struck something hard and he looked down to see the antique-looking side sword tied at Ianto's waist. He chuckled, drawing it as he got to his feet, remembering fencing lessons given to him by Kyhl, always losing to the master fencer. "You can't know how much I hate using a sword, Ianto. Thanks, though." He spun to drive the blade through the back of the mutant who had speared him, preventing him from thrusting the same weapon on Remy from behind.

Remy cast a look back over his shoulder, tipping his head in acknowledgment. "Merci, Jacques. Glad to see you back."

"Coming back is what I do best."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

* * *

"Power at sixty percent and dropping," JARVIS broke in on Stark's comm again. "At present rate, complete power failure in forty-eight seconds."

"Thanks, JARVIS. Heard that before." Stark struggled to move the suit. "Run a diagnostic and make yourself useful, will you?"

"External power override, unregistered energy source," came the reply. "Electromagnetic pulse dampeners ineffective. Emergency reboot ineffective. Controls will not respond. Power at fifty-five percent and dropping."

"Disengage the armor from the arc reactor." Stark watched the heads-up display inside his mask dim as the computer attempted to follow his order.

"Unable to disengage. External power source controlling all commands. No mechanical control commands available. Power at fifty percent and dropping."

"Emergency conservation procedures. Redirect power from servos to life support." Stark clenched his jaw. "I just need a second to think of a way out of this."

"Redirection failed. External power source controlling all commands. No internal commands accepted. Power at forty-five percent and dropping."

"JARVIS, analyze the external power source for me. Tell me what it's most like." He closed his eyes, keeping cool against the pressure of the situation. He'd gotten out of worse jams before. He just needed to figure out what he was dealing with.

"External power source is ninety-eight point four percent match to Rift energy, ninety-one point seven percent match to dark matter. Power at forty percent and dropping."

Stark saw the hilt of the sword with the amulet around it again as he opened his eyes. "I can't counter those without potentially causing a chain reaction that would rip the planet apart, if I even had a generator that was capable of building the dark antimatter charge."

"Confirmed. Power requirements for such a reaction are beyond remaining levels. Dark matter-antimatter reaction would result in explosion beyond armor's capability to survive. Power at thirty-five percent and dropping."

"So is the power source Melehan, or the sword and amulet?"

"Incapable of distinguishing between power sources. Subjects are in process of merging into single source. Power at thirty percent and dropping."

"How far along in the process?"

"Subjects approximately seventy-five percent merged. Power at twenty-five percent and dropping."

"He's using the arc reactor as the catalyst for the merge. So what's that going to do when they're combined?" Stark exhaled, channeling all his focus into finding the solution. He could always find a solution for anything, but he was a lot more comfortable dealing with predictable forms of energy, not cross-dimensional ones.

"Power will be at zero percent when merger complete. Automatic system failure will result and life support will shut down. Power at twenty percent and dropping."

"No shit, Captain Obvious. Think, Tony, think. It's just a form of energy. Even Rift energy and dark matter follow rules, you just have to figure them out in the next.. twelve seconds." He tried to tap his fingers and found them still immobilized inside the armor that was currently a deadly prison. "He wants to reshape the cosmos, which would require the ability to bring every point in time and space into a singularity and reorder them instantaneously, which is probably going to hurt a lot."

"Prediction is that you will be unconscious or expired before sufficient power levels would be engaged for such reordering. Power at ten percent and dropping. Backup power is now engaged and draining."

"Stop cheering me up, JARVIS. This guy doesn't seem conservative in his methods at all, so I bet he's draining me at the maximum he can tolerate. If I dump all remaining power into the drain, will it sever the connection?"

"Probability confirmed, if all remaining power is redirected into the drain at once, but will result in complete system failure and backup power source failure. Power at five percent and dropping. Life support systems draining."

Stark couldn't afford to hesitate, not that it was his style anyway. He fixed his eyes on Melehan's and smiled, mentally overriding the safety systems of his arc reactor and throwing all of the remaining power into the drain. His heads-up display went black and he felt his armor forced away from the overload, tipping over and sending him crashing helplessly to his back. He was unable to see anything but the inside of the helmet, only picking up muffled sounds of battle that seemed miles away compared to the pounding of his own pulse, which was becoming irregular and fainter with every beat of his compromised cardiovascular system. Shock slowly crept up his limbs, his body trying to preserve itself, saving his vital organs and brain. The brain would be the last to go, surviving until all the oxygen ran out, then viable for another ten minutes or so. He pondered that he could ask Martha exactly how long it would be, but his comm system was completely dead.

Melehan staggered back, dazed by the overload. He looked down at his smoking hand, then at the sword and amulet, the two of them fused into one already. He scowled at the darkened suit that lay five meters away, the chest beam burnt out, the joints emitting a hiss of steam from their overheated servos. "You really are an annoying little man. I was so close. Still," he continued, closing his hand as dark energy coursed through it, causing the veins to glow purple, "I think I have enough in me to get the ball rolling and deal with the rest of these freaks so I can complete my work in peace."

He dropped to one knee, driving his fist into the ground and beginning to chant one word over and over under his breath. "Master, Master, Master, Master."

* * *

Kurt spun away from Margali, drawing the focus of the bubbling flame-breather away from her as he flipped backwards across the street. "Come and get me, vhy don't you?" he mocked. The flame-breather belched out another blast that singed the ends of the blue mutant's hair. "Perhaps zhat vas a little close."

Logan raised a brow, his claws passing through liquid once more. "Hey, Elf, need a fast kick over here if you don't mind."

Kurt cartwheeled to weave between fighting mutants, coming up with his back to Logan's. "Zhat zhing ve practiced?"

"That's the one." Logan lifted his chin, the annoying spotty teen's blow barely even registering against his muscular forearm as he lined up with the flame-breather. "Hey, Bub, need a drink?" The flame-thrower turned toward him, opening his mouth again. "Go for it," directed Logan, dropping to the ground.

Kurt jumped into the air, his movements so fast the water-boy didn't even have a chance to shift before he was kicked in the chest and sent flying backwards. He turned liquid a moment too late as the blast of fire caught him in midair. He erupted in steam with a shriek, then solidified, falling to the ground, his skin charred and blistered. "I got your back, now you have mine, right?" asked Kurt as he landed in a crouch.

"That's the deal, Elf." Logan picked himself up, striding over to deal with the flame-breather, choking and blinded in the cloud of steam. "This guy's more my size anyway."

Warren took in the battle from his overhead vantage point, looking for areas of greatest trouble. Some of Melehan's mutants were level three and four by the power they were demonstrating, but the X-men trained mutants were equally powered, more experienced, and had teamwork on their side. He could see that the Torchwood contingent was holding its own as well. He looked around for Stark and spotted the red and gold Mach III laying motionless and unlit. "Martha!" he called, "Tony's down!"

He didn't have a chance to see if she heard him as he saw two bat-winged mutants look up at the sound of his voice, then spring into the air, zipping toward him with outstretched claws."Oh, man, why do there always have to be some of those?" The winged X-man shot into the sky, twisting and turning as he was pursued over the roofs of the nightclubs.

Martha's mask turned to search for Stark as she heard Warren's call. "Tony!" she yelled over the intersuit comm, getting no response. She risked a short flight, even though she had barely trained with the jumpboots, desperate to get to the fallen suit. She tried to weave between two mutants who looked like they were made of boulders, but she knocked her right arm against the larger one, causing a wobble with her stabilizer that sent her spinning into the pavement. She rolled to her feet, unharmed although she'd left a furrow in the street, and switched to walking the suit the last few meters to where the Mach III was downed. She flipped up her helmet's mask, then did the same to Stark's, searching his face for life.

Stark opened his eyes partially at the rush of cold air across his skin. His lips curled up at the corners in a smile as he saw who was bent over him. "How's the suit holding up?" he whispered.

Martha gave him something between a laugh and a sob. "Mine's fine, but yours doesn't look so hot, Tony. Do you have any power left?"

"Nope." He closed his eyes again, laboring just to breathe, unable to raise his voice. "I was thinking you might not make it in time, but that would suck, and I don't do well at suck endings."

Martha pressed her palm to the unibeam on his chest, activating her pulse beam at a low level to avoid damaging him further. "Don't try to move. This should be enough to keep your heart going."

Stark ignored her suggestion, taking advantage of the boost to lift his hand high enough to lay it over hers. "Yeah, that's working."

"You two having a moment?" John landed next to them, sheathing his blood-covered sword.

Stark chuckled drily. "I think you might want to check on Melehan. I don't think I'm quite ready to kick his ass at the moment, so I'm willing to let you have the privilege."

John turned in time to see Melehan stand again, his entire body now coursing with dark matter energy. "Oh, come on, now he's just being flash. Purple is such a garish choice in color schemes."

Melehan gave John a smirk. "You will be a decent sacrifice to complete my spell, little Baby Britain. There's just enough energy in that strap on your wrist to finish the merger and make me the equal of my father."

"Too bad, get your own." John aimed his ring at the sword and amulet, then frowned as it failed to lift them out of the asphalt. "... Well, that one didn't work."

Melehan strode toward him, reaching for the vortex manipulator. A brighter violet glow caught John's attention from the corner of his eye and he dove to the side as one of Remy's playing cards landed at Melehan's feet and burst into psionic energy, forcing the mage to stagger back several feet. Melehan cast a glare at the Cajun mutant, who gave him a two-fingered and rather rude salute. "Dis da way you do it here, right, Johnny?" Remy asked cheerfully.

"I love you, LeBeau, and I mean that in every way possible," said John, coming to his feet again. "When this is over, I'm going to show you so many ways I do it you won't walk for a week."

"Ah think you got de wrong idea 'bout us, but we settle dat later, mon ami." Remy tucked his bô under his arm, flashing his charming smile at Melehan. "You wanna dance wit' da Union Jack, you gotta dance wit' da Ragin' Cajun first, eh?"

Melehan sneered, holding up one hand, palm facing Remy. "I'd be happy to put you off my card, you uncouth American inbreeder." Dark energy arced from his palm to engulf the mutant, raising him off the ground and shattering his sunglasses.

"Hart, get the sword," Stark called out in a strained voice.

John looked over to it and ran to grasp it with both hands. A surge of power ran up the blade at his touch and the amulet flared, throwing him backward. "I can't!"

"Then don't let him get your strap. He can't complete the spell." Stark tried to lift his head, but Martha gently pushed him back down.

John looked over to Melehan. The mage released his hold on Remy, letting the mutant drop as he turned to John. "Stop being troublesome. I had no problem defeating other Captain Britains who were trained masters of their powers. What good is a novice against me?"

"Sorry, I'm just born trouble. You can ask my boss." John wrapped his palm over the strap, backing up as Melehan advanced.

"Whoohah!" Remy got to his feet, shaking his head with a laugh, his red pupils piercing against their black background. "Dat one made me all tingly! Gimme ag'in!"

Melehan paused, looking over his shoulder in amazement. "That should have destroyed every cell in your body. You're a regenerator?"

Remy flashed his grin again, flipping a card to his fingertips. "Acshully, Ah'm more like dat Energizer Bunny, only bettah lookin' by far." He threw the card at Melehan's feet, unleashing a blast that threw Melehan four meters in the air.

The mage flipped and landed on his feet, dropping to one knee. "You bastard. You drained me? I'm going to make you pay for that." He grabbed the hilt of the sword, the amulet's chain snaking around his wrist as he drew it.

"Gonna hafta catch me first!" Remy took off at a run, the mage chasing after him like a bully in a schoolyard.

* * *

Owen, Gwen, and Tosh stared at the pile of timepieces on the floor between them. "There's no more?" Owen asked.

Tosh shook her head. "We brought you every last one."

Owen dropped his head in his hand. "None of these is the right one. We made the wrong call."

"We did all we could, Owen. Maybe there's a secret safe or.. a room." Gwen's eyes searched the walls frantically.

"We're out of time, Gwen!" Owen rubbed his temple. "We can't find the right one, and Ianto's probably going to die."

"You can't give up," Tosh pleaded. "Are you going to let Ianto sacrifice himself for nothing?"

Owen's head snapped up and he looked at Tosh. "What'd you say?"

"Are you going to let Ianto sacrifice himself for nothing?"

The three of them stared at each other in silence for a moment as the realization dawned on them.

"It's not a clock at all," Gwen breathed.

"It's that bloody stopwatch!" Owen smacked his palm to his forehead.

Tosh keyed her headset quickly. "John, the Timepiece of Sacrifice, it's Ianto's stopwatch!"

* * *

John shook his head, tapping his earpiece. "Say again?" He heard Tosh repeat the message and looked over to where Jack was standing over Ianto's body, fighting off mutants with a side-sword. He pondered suggesting a less squared stance, but there were more pressing matters at hand. "JACK! GIVE ME THE STOPWATCH!"

"A little busy, John!" Jack ducked under a fist that seemed to be imbedded with rotary saw blades.

"The stopwatch, it's the Timepiece of Sacrifice Margali was going on about! Tosh says I can use it to stop Melehan!"

The saw blades came up again, then fell to the ground as Logan's claws cut the mutant's arm off. "Get him the stopwatch, Jack. We'll handle this."

Jack nodded to Logan, pulling the silver plated stopwatch from his pocket. He looked up, seeing Warren swooping toward him, and threw the stopwatch straight up into the air. Warren caught it in one hand, carrying it across the street and dropping it into John's waiting hand. John stepped onto the sidewalk as Remy ran past him, following instinct as to what to do next. He held the stopwatch in his left hand, dropping it in front of his right one, the ring touching the back. Looking up at the charging mage coming at him, he pushed the button on the top.

It took every ounce of his enhanced strength to stand up against the force that shot out of the watch. White light exploded up from the ground under Melehan's feet as the Rift ruptured directly under him, the sidewalk splitting down the middle under the force of the tremor. Melehan stumbled, trying to keep his balance as the crack widened, his feet straddling it. With a cry of sheer unadulterated rage he vanished into the light. Like sparks from a roman candle, arcs of Rift energy started to land all over the street, each one targeting Melehan's mutants, sucking them into the fully opened Rift as well. With the last of his strength, John slid his finger over the top of the stopwatch once more, hitting the button and falling to his knees as the Rift sucked itself back in, the crevice slamming shut. The Sword of Might and the Amulet of Right slid apart, clattering to the pavement in front of him.

Jack picked himself up from where he had been knocked to the ground, looking around to see his companions doing the same. They were the only ones left standing, a dozen or so bodies strewn along the street marking all that was left of the Cardiff mutants. There was no sign of Melehan. "No! Ianto..." He slumped to sit next to his lover's body, wishing he could cry, but feeling nothing but cold.

Remy put his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Sorry, mon ami. He musta been somefin', your boyfriend, eh?"

Jack's head dropped to his chest. "Melehan would never have saved him anyway."

"Melehan?" Remy looked at his hand.

Logan furrowed his brow. "You drained him, kid?" When he got a nod from Remy, he looked over to Margali, the sorceress sitting on the sidewalk, her cheek on her palm. "Hey, Margali, you said all you need is the frequency of the caster to undo a spell, right?" He nodded to Remy.

Margali lifted her head, looking to Remy, then to Ianto. She jumped up, running to the Cajun's side. "Of course, oui! Mon homme bel, give me your hand, quickly!" She pulled Remy down next to Ianto, placing his hand over the Welshman's chest, then laying both her hands over his.

"Que faites-vous, eh?" Remy watched with fascination.

"Shh, soyez tranquille, mon cher," she replied, closing her eyes to focus. "He is only holding on by a thinnest thread to life." Her brow furrowed as she summoned the strength to cast. "Help me now, Wandering Way."

Jack looked at them, then down at Ianto's face, seeing his lips part slightly, the barest twitch under his lids. "Ianto!"

"Call him back, mon cher," whispered Margali. "Remind him where he belongs."

"He belongs with me," answered Jack, leaning down to press his lips to his lover's. He felt the warmth creep through them, then felt the kiss returned as one of Ianto's hands slid around the back of his neck. Only then did he feel the tears coming, falling unchecked onto the younger man's cheeks.

* * *

:Yes, I know there's a couple loose threads to finish up still, but you know I couldn't end a story based on Marvel plot progression without an epilogue chapter, right? It'll be coming soon, I promise. In the meantime, **make my day with a review, please!**:


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

* * *

Jack watched Ianto from the doorway as he prepared another death certificate for Martha to sign, leaning on the slab of a cryo chamber for support. It was the last of the mutant bodies, the cleanup that was a normal part of the Torchwood administrator's duties. Jack had been more than happy to hand that task over when he hired Ianto on, glad to have less obligation to stare in the faces of the aliens and, too frequently of late, humans who more often than not he'd had a hand in killing, whether directly or by not being perfect enough to save everyone. The young Welshman didn't seem affected by the presence of so much death, even with the body of his former girlfriend just a few feet from him behind an iron door. Jack crossed his arms, looking from Lisa's crypt to the one below it where he had spent over a century waiting to see his brother again. Gray slept there now, set aside until Jack could figure out a way to heal the shattered mind of his tortured younger brother. He refused to believe John's assessment, that Gray was a lost cause, just like Ianto had refused to believe there was no way to bring back Lisa, even after she had tossed him aside to die. He furrowed his brow at the comparison that had sprung unbidden into his mind.

"Looking for someone in particular, Jack?" Ianto didn't look up from his note-taking. "We've got a special on today thanks to an unscheduled shipment, guaranteed one-of-a-kinds."

Jack broke into a laugh. "We really should get someone in to examine your mental state with your gallows humor." He walked into the room, resisting the urge to pull his lover into his arms and have him then and there. Even he had his limits and sex in a morgue just pushed it a bit far for him, although he had his suspicions that Ianto wouldn't object. It would certainly make his own office fetish seem tame by comparison. "Almost done?"

"Last one." He straightened, sliding his pen into his suit jacket's inner pocket, then tucking the clipboard under his arm to push the slab into the chamber. "Need coffee?"

"Badly." It was becoming a comfortable metaphor between them, that one. "Been making my own for days now. It's not the same."

"It's always better to have someone else to stir for you." Ianto engaged the lock.

"You have a way with the cream." Jack glanced over at the door Kyhl had locked when he had stood here the last time.

"I know you like it strong and not too sweet. Just how far are we going to try to stretch the metaphor this time?"

Jack held up the stopwatch he'd taken back from John, offering it out. "My office, ten minutes?"

Ianto took it with a mischievous half-smile. "And counting, sir." He slipped it into his pocket and walked out, casting a lustful wink over his shoulder before closing the door.

Jack stared at the cryo door a few more moments, listening to Ianto's fading footsteps before he lifted his wrist and opened the interface board on his vortex manipulator. He was ninety-nine percent sure nothing would happen again, but when he pressed the key to unlock the door, he was met with a satisfying clank from the mechanism. "Finally get to see what you were up to, Kyhl." He leaned down and opened the door, then slid out the slab.

His eyes widened as he looked down on what appeared to be a small, gold-plated sphere. A soft mechanical whir started and the sphere bounced, opening a pair of large, curious blue eyes. "Oh gosh, oh golly, oh wow!" it exclaimed in a child-like voice, then shot out of the cryo chamber, bouncing off the walls in a hyperactive glee.

Jack ducked to avoid getting bashed in the head as the ball sped by. "What the hell are you?"

The ball slowed to a hover, turning to face him. "I'm Widget Too. The Doctor's friend said he thought you might need someone who can help you get to whens and wheres, but only if you're good when you get there!"

"So you're a floating dimension-splitting robot who can track the various Captain Britains and open up Rift portals." Jack raised a brow.

"Among other things," said the sphere cryptically, then started to spin. "Wheeeeeee!" It stopped again, wobbling. "I'm hungry. What you got to eat?"

"Tell you what. Go find Captain Union Jack. He knows where the kitchen is." He opened the morgue door for the robot, who immediately zipped off, crashing into the wall and bouncing off to head up the stairwell, chirping excitedly. Jack chuckled, shutting the cryo chamber door before making his way out through the surgery. He could hear the sounds of mayhem from the break room and didn't even hesitate, continuing straight to his office.

* * *

Stark set his helmet on top of the rest of the armor that made up the Mach III, now in a pile on a gurney. "Give me an afternoon, it'll be up and running again. Although I was thinking I could make a new suit as well, incorporating some of the design improvements we worked into the Metallique." He looked over to Martha, running his hand through his hair. He never was very good at this part of things, he realized, mostly because he never practiced it. Morning-after moments with most women were handled deftly by Pepper, or resulted in him getting slapped by an angry woman who too late recognized she'd made a mistake thinking Tony Stark had seen her as anything other than a warm body.

Martha crossed her arms. "So two afternoons, then?"

"Gives me something to do during happy hour." He studied the wall of the surgery thoughtfully. Martha was anything but another warm body. She, as much as Pepper, was fun to talk to, without a decade's history of missed opportunities and too many bouts of boozed misbehavior to get in the way. "I could always do with some help."

"Good thing Tosh is going with you, then." Martha smiled.

"Not with me, exactly. Think she likes the fact that my company is in the same city where Warren spends most of his time." He looked over to her again, narrowing his eyes at how difficult this was getting. "You know, Marty, I was thinking we'd be a great team, you and me. You could follow me around and make sure my heart keeps beating."

Martha shook her head, laughing softly. "Sorry, Tony, I've done my shift following a bloke around. Doesn't matter how great a bloke he is, I've got my own life, and I want to live it. Besides, Owen's heading off to Avalon with John to train under Margali, so someone's got to stay here and look after the team. Melehan and his mutants are still out there somewhere, and who knows when they'll drop out of the Rift."

Stark swallowed the lump in his throat, never having anticipated that response. "Probably the best plan, yeah. I'm sure you can get that flying thing down on your own now that I've shown you the basic controls, and if a problem comes up you can always send the suit through to--" He was cut off by her leaning forward to give him a kiss.

"I'm always free for special occasions, though. You know, birthdays, holidays, the odd red carpet affair. Always wanted to do one of those where it didn't wind up with alien parasites bursting from the guests or some other messy business."

"Mine are usually alien parasite free." He slid his arm around her waist. "You have a dress? Because I think there's a little dinner thing this weekend I was supposed to find a date for. Unless, of course, Merlyn already took you to the White House. It's not a big thing, just a reception for the French President and his wife."

Martha's eyes widened. "You have the same ones on 616 that we do? Cécilia Sarkozy is going to be there?"

Stark nodded. "Think that's her name. Ex-model or something. I might have slept with her years back, before she was married, of course. So you interested?"

Martha punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Only if you promise not to point out every woman you've slept with all evening. I've seen nude shots of her. That's a lot of pressure to live up to."

"If it helps, I can't remember her body, but yours is permanently etched into my psyche." He pulled her close for a kiss. "I'll have my Widget call your Widget and set up a portal, Saturday say around.. six?"

"Sounds like a plan." She slid her arms around his shoulders. "Should I pack anything? An overnight bag?"

He grinned, dropping his forehead against hers. "Oh, most definitely bring your toothbrush, Dr. Jones."

* * *

It had been a day since their visitors had gone home and the Hub felt oddly quiet with three fewer members of Torchwood there. Jack, Gwen, and Martha sat around the conference table, watching archive footage from the CCTVs on the monitor.

"There, you're right there in the corner!" Gwen leaned forward, pointing. "I'd know your bare arse anywhere, Jack."

Jack snickered. "See? It's not that I cheat at naked hide-and-seek. Ianto just never thinks of the best spots."

Martha shook her head, then tipped up her beer, fast forwarding to the next clip. "That's three to Gwen. Hold on, I've got this one! You're under the exam table." She leaned forward. "He must have left you there a long time, poor Jack."

The captain rolled his eyes. "Please, it was freezing in there, that's all."

"Stop it! No! I told you I'd get you some tins and I did!" Ianto's frustrated outburst from outside caused them all to turn around in time to see Widget Too phase through the wall, blue eyes blinking innocently. The admin threw open the door, glaring at the robot. "Jack, she's out of control."

"What'd you do, Too?" Jack leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"I was hungry!" protested the sphere, bouncing through the air to hide behind Jack's chair. "Tell him not to be mad."

"Don't be mad, Ianto. What'd she do?"

Ianto crossed his arms, cooling. "She's only gone and eaten half the coffee machine."

Jack turned around in his seat, brow raised. "Too, didn't we say no vital equipment in your diet?" He looked up at the monitor as it beeped, the view switching to the RAM readout. "Okay, kids, looks like Torchwood's back in business."

Ianto picked up the remote, switching over to the map view, then bringing up the video shot of a medium-sized space ship plummeting toward the lake in Roath Park. "What sort of aliens are those?"

"Aught-three Firefly-class Mid-bulk Transport, mid twenty-fifth century to early twenty-sixth, although that one looks like it's pretty beaten up. Great little ship. Did a short tour with the browncoats getting shuttled around in one. Those aliens would most likely be humans from the colonies, probably smugglers or mercenaries." Jack broke into a grin. "If we're really lucky, they might have a professional Companion on board."

* * *

:There we go, a completed fanfic. I'm a little sorry to see this one end, however, so yes, there's a bit of a teaser there that might turn into a sequel after I take a bit of a rest and re-watch all my Firefly and Serenity dvds. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing this one, and of course...

**THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!**:


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